Now when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death; and they bound Him, and led Him away, and delivered Him up to Pilate the governor.

Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” And they counseled together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; and they gave them for the Potter’s Field, as the Lord directed me.” (27:1-10)

In recent years in the United States, twice as many people have killed themselves as have killed others. Because experts believe that many seemingly natural deaths are actually self-inflicted, the incidence is probably much higher than what is reported. Suicide ranks among the top ten killers in the United States, and many other countries have rates that are even higher.

Researchers who analyze human behavior list five primary reasons for committing suicide. I believe most people kill themselves for retaliation. Because they are angry over an offense or mistreatment, they take their own lives as a means of hurting those who have hurt them. Whether their abuse was real or imagined, they invariably succeed in inflicting deep pain on those they seek to hurt. This is almost always the case when young people kill themselves. And usually it is their parents they want to hurt irremediably.

Some people take their own lives for the sake of reunion with loved ones who have already died. Older spouses who were particularly dependent on their mates sometimes decide to join them in death rather than endure the loneliness and frustration of life without them.

Some people take their lives out of a desire for rebirth. With the increased influence of Eastern religions, many Westerners have been persuaded of the reality of reincarnation, and by committing suicide they hope to be reborn into a better form or circumstance.

A particularly distorted reason for suicide is referred to as retroflex, the killing of oneself in place of someone else who is unreachable. Some years ago a man killed himself because a brutal Nazi war criminal could not be found and brought to justice.

For some people, suicide is an extreme form of self-retribution. Considering their guilt to be unforgivable and unremediable, some people, in effect, sentence themselves to capital punishment and carry out the sentence by their own hand.

Because every human being is made in the image of God and belongs to Him, no one has the right to murder anyone, even himself. Suicide is self-murder and is rebellion against God’s sovereign right over life and death. It is an act of sin and unbelief, a clear violation of the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13).

According to the common definition of suicide, Scripture reports only two instances. Although Saul and his armor bearer took their own lives, they did so only because they faced a much more brutal and humiliating death at the hands of the enemy. But in the usual sense, only the deaths of Ahithophel (see 2 Sam. 17) and Judas were suicide.

Because Judas’s sin was so monstrous, it is not difficult to understand how unrelieved guilt drove him to take his own life. He committed the most heinous crime any man has ever committed or could commit, betraying the only truly innocent and perfect man who has ever lived. Because he could not live with his guilt, Judas had only two choices. He could have gone to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation, which the Lord had so often offered. But because he would not do that, his only recourse was self-destruction.

For the account of Judas’s suicide, Matthew briefly interrupts his portrayal of Jesus’ trial. His purpose in presenting the story of Judas’s final hours of life was not simply to show the dreadful fate of Christ’s betrayer but also to show, by several contrasts, the beauty, purity, and majesty of the one betrayed. Jesus is exalted even against the backdrop of sordid sin and death.

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE WICKED LEADERS AND
THE SINLESS CHRIST

Now when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death; and they bound Him, and led Him away, and delivered Him up to Pilate the governor. (27:1-2)

Contrary to rabbinical law, the first two phases of Jesus’ religious trial were carried out during the night and away from the Temple. He had first been brought before the former high priest Annas, probably in the hope that this wicked conniver could concoct a charge against Jesus that would justify the death penalty. When that failed, Christ was brought before the acting high priest, Caiaphas, and the hastily-assembled Sanhedrin. Even with willing false witnesses that group was also unable to indict Jesus. Only when He confessed to being the Christ and God’s Son did they discover a way to destroy Him. Although He spoke the truth, they convicted Him of blasphemy and being worthy of death (Matt. 26:63-66). He was sentenced to death for the truth, for being who He indeed is.

Now when morning had come, Matthew recounts, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. Although they had already reached a verdict about His guilt and punishment, they still had two hurdles. First, they had to devise a way to make their decision appear legal under rabbinical law. Mark mentions that in addition to all the chief priests and the elders, “scribes, and the whole Council” were present (15:1). Second, because the people knew that all trials involving the death penalty had to be conducted in the daytime and in the Temple court, they had to wait until morning of that Passover Friday to reconvene the Sanhedrin in its legitimate council chamber (Luke 22:66). The counsel they took among themselves amounted to reasserting the charges against Jesus and reaffirming the verdict to put Him to death (see Luke 22:67-71).

After that point, however, the Jewish leaders dropped all pretense of legality. As explained in chapter 16 of this volume, rabbinical law required that a sentence of death could not be carried out until the third day after it was rendered and that during the intervening day the members of the court were to fast. The delay of execution provided additional time for evidence or testimony to be discovered in the defendant’s behalf. Because Friday was a holy day for Judean Jews, which included virtually all the religious leaders, and the next day was the Sabbath, the earliest legitimate execution of Jesus could not have been until Sunday—assuming the trial itself had been legitimate. On this occasion, however, the Sanhedrin did not bother to give even the semblance of compliance with that requirement. Now that Jesus was finally in their custody, they determined to destroy Him as quickly as possible.

But because they were not allowed to administer the death penalty themselves (John 18:31), the Jewish leaders now had to convince the Roman governor to give immediately the required permission for Jesus’ execution. Therefore they bound Him, and led Him away, and delivered Him up to Pilate the governor. With that hearing, the first phase of Jesus’ secular, Roman trial would begin.

Pontius Pilate had been the Roman governor of Judea since A.D. 26, when Tiberius Caesar was emperor, and continued to govern until the year 36. Jesus was taken to the Praetorium, the official provincial residence of the governor, and to keep from being ceremonially defiled and thereby prevented from celebrating the Passover later that day, the Jewish leaders waited outside (John 18:28).

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN GUILTY JUDAS AND INNOCENT JESUS

Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. (27:3-5)

We are not told where Judas was during the Jewish mock trials. He doubtless had followed the multitude from the Mount of Olives to Annas’s house and was waiting nearby, perhaps in the courtyard where Peter was. It is possible that he was called as one of the witnesses against Jesus, but that seems unlikely. Judas still had the onus of being a disciple of Jesus, and, in any case, the very fact he was a traitor would have made his testimony suspect. Because Judas had fulfilled his usefulness to them, the chief priests and elders wanted nothing more to do with him. He was now a rejected outcast—to them, to the disciples, and to Jewish society in general.

Then when could be translated “at that time,” which seems to fit the context. Even before dawn it had became obvious to Judas and the others in the courtyard that the foregone verdict of the Jewish leaders had been confirmed. Now Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw with his own eyes that He had been condemned. Although hora (saw) was sometimes used in the figurative sense of being aware of or perceiving, its use here suggests literal, physical sight. If Peter was able to see Jesus during at least part of the trial (Luke 22:61), then others in the courtyard could have seen Him as well. Judas had seen Jesus maligned, spat upon, beaten, and mocked. Now he watched in bewilderment as his condemned Teacher was taken to Pilate.

As Judas watched Jesus being carried away to Pilate, the full enormity of his treachery finally began to dawn on him as he realized the Jewish leaders did indeed intend to put Jesus to death. The one last obstacle was the permission of Pilate, which Judas had no reason to believe would be denied. Once Pilate consented, Jesus’ death would be inevitable.

The sight was devastating to Judas, more than even his money-hungry mind, his sordid soul, and his seared conscience could deal with. He felt remorse as he began to experience the intense, excruciating pain that is unique to profound guilt.

No man could be more evil than Judas Iscariot. Only eleven other men in all of history have had the intimate, personal relationship he had with the incarnate Son of God. No man has ever been more exposed to God’s perfect truth, both in precept and example. No man has been more exposed firsthand to God’s love, compassion, power, kindness, forgiveness, and grace. No man has had more evidence of Jesus’ divinity or more firsthand knowledge of the way of salvation. Yet in all of those three indescribably blessed years with Jesus, Judas did not take so much as the first step of faith.

In a way that defies comprehension, Judas persistently resisted and rejected God’s truth, God’s grace, and even God’s own Son. Also in a way that defies understanding, he managed to completely conceal his wicked rebellion from everyone but Jesus. His hypocrisy was so complete and deceptive that even when Jesus predicted that one of the disciples would betray Him, Judas was not suspected.

Judas was so totally trapped in the darkness and corruption of sin that he became a willing instrument of Satan. Because this false disciple had totally renounced Christ, “Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot” (Luke 22:3), and it was then a simple matter to persuade him to betray Jesus (John 13:2). Judas’s heart was so utterly hardened to the things of God that long before he consciously considered betraying Him, Jesus called him a devil (John 6:70).

Even so, Judas could not escape the divinely designed signal of guilt that reminds men of their sin and warns them of its consequences. Just as pain is an intrinsic and automatic warning of physical danger, guilt is an intrinsic and automatic warning of spiritual danger. It was not that Judas suddenly became afraid of God, else he would have turned in desperation to the One he knew could forgive him. Nor was he afraid of men. Although he was now discarded and despised by the Jewish leaders, they had no reason to harm him. It was rather that Judas suddenly realized the horrible wrongness of what he had done. An innate awareness of right and wrong is divinely built into every human being and cannot be totally erased, no matter how deep a person may fall into depravity or how consciously and rebelliously he may turn against God. This is intensified by the convicting pressure of the Spirit of God.

Judas’s remorse was not repentance of sin, as the King James Version suggests. Matthew did not use metanoe, which means a genuine change of mind and will, but metamelomai, which merely connotes regret or sorrow. He did not experience spiritual penitence but only emotional remorse. Although he would not repent of his sin, he could not escape the reality of his guilt. Genuine sorrow for sin (metamelomai) can be prompted by God in order to produce repentance (metanoe), as Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 7:10. But Judas’s remorse was not prompted by God to lead to repentance but only to guilt and despair.

Because he was a kind of witness against Jesus, perhaps Judas thought that by admitting the wickedness of what he had done he would be punished as a false witness, as Deuteronomy 19:16-19 prescribed. Under that provision, he would have been crucified himself, suffering the penalty imposed on the one he caused to be falsely convicted. Instead of looking to Jesus’ for forgiveness and trusting in His atoning death, Judas’s perverted mind may have led him to believe that by dying he somehow could atone for his own sin.

Proof that Judas’s sorrow was ungodly and selfish is seen in the fact that he made no effort to defend or rescue Jesus. He had no desire to vindicate or save Jesus but only to salve his own conscience, which he attempted to do by returning the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.

While some of the Jewish religious leaders were escorting Jesus to Pilate, others remained in the Temple. It was there that Judas confronted them (see v. 5) and confessed that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood. Had he been concerned about forgiveness for his sin and had he really believed on the Lord, he would have approached Jesus, not the chief priests and elders. He hoped somehow to assuage his guilt simply by returning the blood money. Like Pilate, who recognized Jesus’ innocence but nevertheless permitted His death, Judas knew he had betrayed innocent blood, but he did not come to Christ’s defense or seek His forgiveness.

Had Judas been able to remember one fault in Jesus, one deficiency or sin, he may have been able to rationalize his treachery. But even Jesus’ arch enemy in the human realm could not escape confessing His innocence. Like the Jewish religious leaders, the Roman political leaders, the false witnesses, and even the demons, Judas could find no fault in Jesus. In His sovereign power, God caused even His enemies to testify to the Son’s sinless purity.

Yet despite his confession, Judas had not changed his mind about who Jesus was or about his own need for salvation. He had simply become aware of the wickedness of what he had done and wanted relief from the overwhelming guilt that now tormented every part of his being. The money he had wanted so badly now burned in his hands like a live coal.

Sin never brings the satisfaction it promises. Instead of happiness it brings sorrow, and instead of pleasure it produces pain. It poisons with a pang that cannot be relieved apart from God’s forgiving grace.

In reply to Judas’s agonized appeal, the chief priests and elders callously replied, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” True to the characterization Jesus had given of them a few days earlier, the religious leaders of Israel were adept at laying heavy religious burdens on men’s shoulders, while not lifting a finger themselves to help relieve those burdens (Matt. 23:4). They had no more concern for Judas than for Jesus and were as cold-heartedly indifferent to his remorse as they were to Jesus’ innocence, which, in effect, they had already acknowledged.

Judas likely realized he was cursed, because the Mosaic law made clear that “cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person” (Deut. 27:25). But because the Sanhedrin had paid the betrayal bribe, they were hardly in a position to indict and punish Judas for taking it. If they cared nothing for justice regarding Jesus, they certainly cared nothing for it regarding Judas, especially if it would bring their own indictment as well.

In utter desperation and frustration Judas defiantly threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed. Some interpreters assert that the money was cast into the Temple treasury, suggesting that Judas’s final public act was a gesture of charity. But naos (sanctuary) refers specifically to the inner holy place of the Temple, where only priests were allowed to enter. Judas intentionally threw the money into a place where only the priests could retrieve it. He did not throw it there out of charity but out of spite, wanting them to feel guilty and forcing the chief priests to handle the blood money again themselves.

Following that, he went away and hanged himself. Considering himself already cursed because of his treachery and having unrelieved pain from having committed the greatest crime in human history, he may have reasoned that hanging was the only escape and a fitting death, knowing that “he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deut. 21:23). We cannot know Judas’s mind, but self-retribution seems a credible explanation for what he did. If so, he took his own life as an act of ultimate self-punishment, in a way that was certain to be cursed by God, thereby inflicting upon himself what his overpowering sense of guilt caused him to believe he justly deserved.

But death does not relieve guilt; it makes it permanent and intensified beyond comprehension. As Jesus repeatedly declared, hell is a place of eternal torment, of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). It is a place of “unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-44). Judas today cries out in the eternal pain of his undiminished guilt.

According to Acts 1:18, when Judas committed suicide he fell headlong and “burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.” Although this account and the one in Matthew report different aspects of his death, they are compatible. He must have hanged himself from a weak limb of a tree on a hillside, and when the limb broke under his weight he fell down the slope and was crushed on the rocks below.

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE HYPOCRISY OF MEN AND
THE PROPHECY OF GOD

And the chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” And they counseled together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; and they gave them for the Potter’s Field, as the Lord directed them.” (27:6-10)

Because the chief priests were forced to take back the pieces of silver, they had to devise a way to dispose of it. After their unjust and despicable treatment of Jesus, one wonders why they suddenly became concerned about legal propriety. They knew it was not lawful to put the money into the temple treasury, since it was the price of blood, and for some hypocritical reason they decided to honor that particular restriction. But by admitting it was blood money they condemned themselves out of their own mouths. By definition, the price of blood referred to money illegitimately paid and received to falsely convict a man of a crime that led to his execution. Strangely and perversely, the chief priests and elders had no compunction about taking the money out of the Temple treasury to pay Judas for the betrayal, but now they had qualms about putting it back. In doing so, they testified before the world to their guilt and hypocrisy. It is interesting to note how callous and unfeeling they were about their crime, in contrast to the overwhelming agony of Judas that drove him to kill himself in a vain attempt to relieve his guilt.

They counseled together and decided to use the money to buy the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. As a good will gesture to the public and also to salve their own consciences, they hit upon the idea of buying a field where potters had collected clay to use in their trade. Perhaps the clay was depleted and the field was available for a cheap price. The religious leaders may have reasoned that they would use the defiled money to buy a defiled and useless field in which to bury defiled strangers, a term often used by Jews as a euphemism for Gentiles. Or the field may have been used to bury any traveler who died while visiting Jerusalem, especially those who were indigent.

For that reason, Matthew explains, that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day, referring to the time, some thirty years later, when his gospel was written. The Potter’s Field had come to be called the Field of Blood, because it was common knowledge that it had been purchased with blood money. And by that name, the entire city testified to Jesus’ innocence, acknowledging that He had been falsely accused, falsely condemned, and falsely executed.

In the naming of that field, that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; and they gave them for the Potter’s Field, as the Lord directed me.”

The fact that this quotation comes from Zechariah 13:11-12 and not from the book of Jeremiah has caused some interpreters to accuse Matthew of error. Others have tried to relate the quotation to sections of Jeremiah 18 or 19, although it clearly does not fit. The explanation is found in the Jewish division of the Old Testament into three sections—the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets. In the rabbinical order of the prophetic books, Jeremiah was always listed first. For that reason the entire prophetic category was sometimes referred to as Jeremiah, just as the entire section of the Writings was sometimes referred to as the Psalms, its opening book. Spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was therefore the equivalent of saying, “recorded in the prophetic books.”

Like every other incident in the life of our Lord, that one did not catch God by surprise but was a precise fulfillment of specific prophecy in His omniscient plan. Even in Judas’s death, God’s Word was honored and the Lord Jesus Christ was glorified.