Matthew's is the only gospel account which does not leave off all mention of Judas Iscariot as soon as he betrays Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. After Judas sees that Jesus has been condemned to death, Matthew tells us he is cut to the heart. He wants to undo what he's done, and like a child who thinks saying "I'm sorry" makes everything better, he goes to the chief priests and tells them he made a mistake.
We have to back up just a little bit in time to pick up with the movements of Judas Iscariot on this terrible Friday morning, "Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. So they bound Him, led Him away and handed Him over to Pilate the governor. When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders." (Matthew 27:1-3) On day 66 when we discussed whether or not the soul of Judas was lost, we talked about the Greek word that has been translated into the English word "remorse" in Matthew's account. That word is "metamelomai" which simply means "to have regret or remorse". Metamelomai is a feeling anyone might experience upon realizing they have made a terrible error, but it does not necessarily suggest repentance of a religious nature. It suggests a matter of the conscience rather than a matter of the soul, as normally in the Scriptures the Greek word "metanoia" is used for religious repentance, for it means "a change in one's way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion".
Judas knows he has brought harm on an innocent person. He knows murder is a sin. He is conscience-stricken but, in my opinion, he has not been converted into believing Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. "'I have sinned,' he said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.'" (Matthew 27:4a) This verse can also be rendered, as it is in some versions of the Bible, "I have sinned for I have betrayed an innocent man." To Judas, Jesus is a man. To Judas, Jesus is a brilliant rabbi, a healer, and a person of great magnetism and compassion. But Jesus is not Lord to Judas.
"'What is that to us?' they replied. 'That's your responsibility.'" (Matthew 27:4b) The chief priests, who should have set the moral and religious example for the nation, give Judas no spiritual counseling. They have fallen too far into sin themselves to help anyone else. They are as guilty as he is and they would prefer not having him around to remind them of that unpleasant fact. Now that they've used Judas they are finished with him. When he appears at the temple to confess his sin, they practically laugh in his face. They shrug their shoulders and say, "So what? That's your problem."
At one point in his gospel account the author Luke says, "Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve". (Luke 22:3) For a time Judas was useful to Satan, but now that he's performed his dark deed even the devil wants nothing to do with him. For a time Judas was useful to the enemies of Jesus, but now that they've used him for their purposes they want nothing to do with him. Right now Judas can't think of one human being on the face of the earth who wants anything to do with him. He has betrayed the trust of the other eleven disciples and they hate him for what he's done to Jesus. He has betrayed his rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, and in his mind he believes Jesus hates him too. In the story of Judas we have a perfect example of what Satan desires to do to all of us: lead us down a long dark road and leave us there stranded and lonely until we are in so much despair we can't think of anything to do but escape this world by taking our own lives. "So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself." (Matthew 27:5)
The thirty pieces of silver, which once meant enough to Judas that he betrayed the best Friend he ever had, now lie on the floor of the temple. "The chief priests picked up the coins and said, 'It is against the law to put this into the treasury, because it is blood money.'" (Matthew 27:6) Their hypocrisy is stunning. They have just conspired to send an innocent man to His death, breaking a number of laws and commandments, but they are concerned about breaking the law of Deuteronomy 23:18 which forbids putting money that has been used for immoral purposes into the treasury. This is the type of hypocrisy Jesus had in mind when He rebuked the religious leaders by saying, "You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." (Matthew 23:24) The chief priests are going out of their way to keep from breaking one of the more obscure laws of the Old Testament after having broken commandments like "you shall not murder" and "you shall not bear false witness". They've even broken the commandment "you shall have no other gods before Me" because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ in favor of keeping the status quo and by saying, "We have no king but Caesar!"
"So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 'They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on Him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me.'" (Matthew 27:7-10) Critics have pointed to Matthew's words as an error in the Bible because he ascribes this quote to Jeremiah rather than to Zechariah who actually predicted the money being used for the potter's field, but in Matthew's day the scroll of Jeremiah contained the book of Jeremiah, the book of Zechariah, and several books of those known as the minor prophets. In Matthew's day, when a rabbi stood up to teach from the book of Zechariah, he would call for the scroll of Jeremiah to be brought to him. Zechariah, when acting out the role of a good shepherd as a metaphor for the Good Shepherd (the Messiah), said, "I told them, 'If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.' So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, 'Throw it to the potter'---the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord." (Zechariah 11:12-13)
Critics have also attempted to claim Luke makes an error in the book of Acts when he describes the fate of Judas like this, "With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood." (Acts 1:18-19) It is not a contradiction for Luke to say Judas bought a field, for it was the money Judas earned by his act of betrayal that purchased the field. Was the field Judas hanged himself in the same field that the chief priests bought with the blood money? It would appear so. Luke is also not contradicting Matthew's account of Judas hanging himself when he says Judas fell headlong and burst open. Grisly and graphic as this may be, the physician Luke is describing the natural fate of a body that has been left hanging to decompose. At some point the body will probably fall, either because the weight of it stretches the noose large enough for the head to slip through or because the head becomes detached from the neck. The body splits open as it hits the ground. This is the sad fate of Judas Iscariot. Upon his death he had no one who cared enough about him to come and cut his body down and give him a proper burial. The man who was once known as a disciple of Jesus Christ is now known as the worst traitor who ever lived. Ever since that day the word "Judas" has become synonymous with the word "betrayer".
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