The End of Judas - Matthew 27:1-10

©Copyright March 4, 2018 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

If you have one of those baby name books you may have noticed that some names are missing: Adolf, Ayatollah, Benedict, and of course Judas. This morning we are going to look at the postscript to the story of Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus.

Before we get to Judas we must go back to the courtyard and the trial of Jesus. As you may remember, the illegal trial of Jesus took place in the middle of the night. When Jesus declared he was the Messiah (and the Son of God) by applying the words of the book of Daniel to Himself, He was charged with blasphemy. We pick up the account in Matthew 27:1.

Very early in the morning the leading priests and the elders of the people met again to lay plans for putting Jesus to death. 2Then they bound him, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor.

Many scholars believe the priests and elders (the Sanhedrin) met again early in the morning to reaffirm their decision in the “daytime” to give the appearance of obeying the Jewish law. They could say “technically, they did not (officially) convict him at night. Whenever you say “technically” it should be a clue that what you are doing is wrong.

The next step was to take Jesus to the Roman governor (or prefect) to be sentenced. Since Rome had subjected Israel, the Jews could not sentence someone to death, only the Romans could do that. So, they made a very early appointment with Pilate.

We will talk more about this next week but Pilate was a military leader. He was appointed to his position and his governance had not started out very well. He provoked a few riots among the Jews and Rome did not look kindly on disruption. This fact will figure in to the decision that Pilate makes later in the story.

Before continuing on with the account of the trial Matthew told us the story of Peter’s denial and then perhaps as a point of contrast, he tells us the story of Judas.

Judas

Matthew is the only Gospel writer to tell us this account. Luke tells us about the death of Judas in the first chapter of the book of Acts.

3When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. 4“I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”

“What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.”

5Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.

Notice a couple of things. First, Judas seems surprised at what happened. He is shocked that Jesus is condemned to die. You wonder what it was that Judas thought was going to happen.

Often when we make reckless or impulsive or even self-serving decisions we find the results are not what we anticipated,

Your girlfriend is pregnant

There is a car accident

Someone overdoses

You lose all your money in the “too good to be true” opportunity

A friendship is destroyed

A marriage ends

A job is lost

I don’t know what Judas was expecting, but we do know it was not what he got.

We are told Judas felt remorse. He was sorry for what he had done. He was so sorry that he returned the money to the Jewish leaders. They were unmoved. Again, as we look at the story from a distance we can’t help but ask again, “What did Judas expect.” These men wanted Jesus, and they wanted him dead. They got what they wanted. They did not care one bit how Judas felt about the situation.

There is a distinction we need to make here. Remorse and repentance are not the same thing. A child feels remorse that they were caught with their hand in the cookie jar when they were told to stay out of the cookies. They are sorry, but they are not repentant. If they could figure out a way to get the cookies without getting caught they would do so. They are sorry they were caught! Repentance involves a change of direction. It is the difference between saying you are sorry and saying, “I am sorry, it will never happen again. I will pay for the damages.” Judas had remorse. Peter was repentant.

Judas felt bad, but not bad enough to confess his sin to the disciples and/or Jesus! This is where we see the contrast with Peter. Peter immediately went back to the disciples. He confessed his sin and failure and was restored to the disciples and to the Lord. Judas was left in despair and hung himself. Judas knew Jesus was innocent but he refused to turn to him.

Please understand, if Judas had come to the Lord with genuine repentance, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross would have been sufficient for his sin as well as mine. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin of refusing to repent and turn to Christ.

Let me stop and say what I hope is obvious: Jesus died for your sin! His sacrifice was so great; His payment was so sufficient that it can cover the worst that you have done. You obtain this forgiveness by doing a couple of things:

Call your failures what they are: sin. Acknowledge the horror of what you have done. You cannot be forgiven until you admit that you have done something that needs to be forgiven. Look at it squarely. Don’t minimize what happened. Face it.

Confess your trust in the work of Christ on your behalf. Ask the Lord to forgive you and make you into a new person.

Jesus says, “Anyone who comes to me I will not turn away.” The person who has really come to Him will now head in a new direction.

One commentator writes,

Earlier, we called this a tale of two failures [Peter and Judas]. In truth, we are all failures. All of us could serve as arguments for the human extinction movement, as we become frightened and panic, as we start down the wrong path and cannot seem to escape, as we even commit premeditated sins. Whatever our failure, an option remains. We can bear the burden ourselves or we can give it to Jesus. We can repent and receive his grace, for he made us in his image and remains committed to us. If he could restore Peter, he can restore us.[1]

The Hardness of the Leaders

6The leading priests picked up the coins. “It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury,” they said, “since it was payment for murder.” 7After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter’s field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. 8That is why the field is still called the Field of Blood. 9This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says,

“They took the thirty pieces of silver—

the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel,

10and purchased the potter’s field,

as the Lord directed.”

Can you believe this? These men paid Judas to betray Jesus so they could arrest and execute him (even they called it murder v.6), and now they are concerned that they don’t want to defile the temple treasury by putting the returned money back into its coffers! Talk about straining out a gnat and missing the camel!

However, this should not surprise us. This is a common occurrence with people. It is sometimes called “selective discipleship.” People decide which parts of the Christian faith they want to practice. We walk the streets during the week causing trouble and slandering people’s character and then on the weekend make a big deal about how the offering is collected! This happens because people separate faith and practice. They may say, “This is a faith issue and that is a life issue.” What Christ is calling us to is a LIFE of faith. Christianity is extremely practical.

Jesus calls us to love Him with ALL of our heart, ALL of our soul, ALL of our mind, and ALL of our strength. Our relationship with Him should permeate every aspect of our lives.

Harmonizing Details, Silencing Critics

There is debate and in some cases controversy on how Judas died. Matthew simply said “Judas went out and hung himself.” The book of Acts says,

(Judas had bought a field with the money he received for his treachery. Falling headfirst there, his body split open, spilling out all his intestines. 19The news of his death spread to all the people of Jerusalem, and they gave the place the Aramaic name Akeldama, which means “Field of Blood.”)

There are people who make a big deal out of the differences in these two accounts. They say the Bible cannot be true because it contradicts itself. I would ask, “Does it?” The simplest explanation may be that Judas hung himself on a tree overhanging a cliff. The tree branch gave way (either immediately or after several days when the body became bloated) and the branch broke off causing Judas to fall headfirst. Into the ravine.

Others are troubled by the fact that Matthew said the priest and leaders purchased the land and Acts said Judas purchased the land with the money he received. If the leaders bought this land with the money Judas returned, it was his money that purchased the land. If you sent your son and daughter to buy a car and you gave them the money, who bought the car? Was it the one who was present or the one who paid the money? It would all depend on who was telling the story.

The prophecy from Jeremiah that Matthew quotes is not found in Jeremiah anywhere. The quote seems to be a combination of Jeremiah and Zechariah. Some people want to make a big deal about that. I am not one of those people. There are various credible explanations if you really want to know more.

Conclusions

Let’s take this case study in the life of Judas and glean some principles for our own lives.

Partners in Evil are not really friends. You have heard the saying: “there is no honor among thieves.” Those who would take advantage of others and use them for their own purposes will also do that to you.

One of the ways scam artists work is to get their “mark” to think of them as a friend. If they can get you to trust them, they will be able to use you to do their dirty work and then they will turn around and clean out your bank account or disappear when the evil is exposed.

Judas was used by the Jewish leaders. They were not interested in him. If your friends are leading you into activity that is not right . . . they are not your friends! Don’t kid yourself. They want one thing from you. Once they get it, they will be gone. Evil people will promise you the moon to get you to give them what they want or to do what they want you to do.

The Fall of Judas was Gradual. Judas started with a greedy heart. The Bible tells us he used to steal from the ministry treasury. It probably was a brief loan to start with. Maybe he even meant to pay it back. Before long he was taking the money with no intention of paying it back.

Some suggest Judas was trying to force the hand of Jesus because this “establishing the Kingdom” stuff was taking way too long. Perhaps he thought he could “speed things up and make a little money on the side.” This is pure speculation, but I am sure Judas told himself he was doing something good. When he finally realized what he had done, he was filled with despair.

This is the way sin always works. We start by making little compromises.

We “bend” the law

We tell a half-truth (which you call a lie if someone else does it)

We ignore verses in the Bible

We excuse our actions saying “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone”

We excuse our sin saying, “it was only this one time” or “everyone is doing it” or even “this is just the way the world is today”

Sin begins like that loose string on your sleeve that you pull so your garment looks better but by the time you have finished the arm has fallen off the garment completely. If you have committed some sin and wonder how you got into such a mess, you can trace it back to a series of bad decisions if you are willing to face the truth. This is why it is so important to be faithful in “little things”.

Judas was condemned because he did not repent; not because her committed suicide. This is a little detour but it is one I feel I must make. There is a notion that a person who commits suicide cannot go to Heaven. I do not believe that is true. I don’t think anyone has said it as well as R.C. Sproul in his book “Surprised by Suffering”.

I explained that suicide is nowhere identified as an unforgivable sin. We do not know with any degree of certainty what is going through a person’s mind at the moment of suicide. It is possible that suicide is an act of pure unbelief, a succumbing to total despair that indicates the absence of any faith in God. On the other hand, it may be the sign of temporary or prolonged mental illness. It may result from a sudden wave of severe depression. (Such depression can in some cases be brought on by organic causes or by unintentional use of certain medication.)

One psychiatrist remarked that the vast majority of people who commit suicide would not have done so had they waited twenty-four hours. Such an observation is conjecture, but it is conjecture based upon numerous interviews of persons who made serious attempts at suicide but failed and consequently recovered.

The point is that people commit suicide for a wide variety of reasons. The complexity of the thinking process of a person at the moment of suicide is known comprehensively by God. God takes all mitigating circumstances into account when he renders his judgment on any person.

Though we must seek to discourage people from suicide, we leave those who have done it to the mercy of God.[2]

The illustration I like to use is this: if a godly person goes into a Nursing home with dementia and begins to do things they would never have dreamed of doing before, do we conclude they are not going to Heaven? No. We say they are not in their right mind, Likewise, if someone commits suicide because they are not thinking clearly, we should not conclude they are excluded from Heaven either.

The only thing that keeps a person from eternal life is a final refusal to repent and cry out to Jesus for salvation.

Hanging out with Jesus is not the same thing as trusting Christ. We are stunned by the treachery of Judas. He walked with Jesus. He went on mission trips. He likely preached. He witnessed incredible miracles. Yet, in the end he turned away.

It is possible to be part of the church, to like Jesus, to study Jesus, and even to be a fan of Jesus and still end up in Hell. It is possible to have religion without a relationship. It is even possible to be a minister of the gospel and still not have a relationship with Christ. Sadly, I believe there will be millions in Hell who were church members, were baptized, and even prayed prayers to “receive Christ”. The one thing all of them will have in common is this: their relationship was superficial.

So here is the most important question of the sermon: Do you have a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus? Have you trusted Him for salvation and new life? Is He your only hope? Are you walking with Him and yearning for Him day after day? Do you trust Him to lead your life? Are you willing to go where He leads and do what He says? If not, please change your direction while there is still time. Run to Him. Seek Him. Follow Him. Find your life in Him.

If you don’t, you may very well end up like Judas.

[1] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew & 2, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008), 476.

[2] R. C. Sproul, Surprised by Suffering (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988), 181–182.