Matthew 27:1-5
And after becoming early in the morning, all of the chief priests
and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus in order to put Him to
death. And after tying Him up they led
Him away and handed Him over to Pilate the governor. At that time, after Judas – the one who
handed Him over – saw that He was being condemned, after feeling regret, he
carried the thirty pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders while
saying, “I sinned after handing over innocent blood.” But they said, “What is it to us? You will see.” And after throwing the silver into the
temple, he went away...
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
In the opening few verses, we really get a sense of the work
of the ruling elite. Of course, at this
point in the story I can start to sound like a broken horse. They want Jesus dead. They are no longer looking to discern. They have made up their mind and are simply
looking for a way to accomplish their desire.
They hold counsel in order to put Jesus to death. It’s that simple. They will take His life. The course is set. They have made their decision and will abide
by it.
How do you feel about these religious elite? Why is their mind so firmly set against
Jesus? What is their ultimate error?
Second Thought:
Regarding Judas, I think that these are some of the saddest
verses of the Gospel story. Here Matthew
is quite clear that Judas felt regret.
When he saw Jesus being condemned, he sees how badly things have turned
out. In his own way, Judas even tries to
undo what has been done by returning the thirty pieces of silver. These verses read very much like remorse and
repentance to me. These verses are why I
don’t honestly believe that Judas is the “betrayer” that everyone likes to
speak about. If Judas was truly angry
with Jesus and wanted to see Him get His end, why the remorse once the verdict
was handed out? No, these verses reveal
to me a man who is caught off-guard by something that he didn’t expect: a
verdict and a death sentence. When he
realized it was all going wrong and Jesus wasn’t going to rise up and defeat
the ruling elite as he thought the Messiah should, he knew that he had made a
mistake.
Have you ever made a grievous mistake because of an error in
judgment? How does this feel? Why can there often be a sense of hopelessness
following the realization of the mistake?
Third Thought:
I had originally planned to go all the
way to verse 10 today. But as I
translated verse 5 I knew that I needed to stop here and look at the response
to Judas made by the religious elite.
Judas comes to them to repent and they refuse to even hear him. They are so convinced in their own
correctness that they miss yet another opportunity to see the error in their
ways. Judas figures it out, but they
miss it completely! But what is truly
sad about this is that these religious leaders fail Judas. Judas comes to them broken. He comes to them contrite. But they couldn’t care any less. They have no concern for Judas. They got their way and are happy. What is Jesus to them? What is Judas to them? They illustrate blatant disregard for life as
they bask in the fact that they are winning.
I find this loathsome. There is
never any excuse for ignoring the repentant and remorseful. Those who come to us in remorse should always
have our listening ear. But Judas is
given no listening ear. He is left to
his own defenses – and we’ll read what happens to him tomorrow. But after seeing the blatant disrespect
showed to Judas by these religious elite, I now lay much of the blame for Judas’
following action at the feet of these gloating religious elite. They should be people charged with caring for
the people, not striving to get their own way.
Have you ever seen a religious leader
miss an opportunity to extend God’s grace when it was sought? Have you ever missed an opportunity to extend
God’s grace and forgiveness? How does it
feel to look back upon those times?
Where can you find forgiveness from God for even those moments?
Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 27:6-10
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