3Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood."
And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it!"
5Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.
6But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood." 7And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. 8Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
9Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10and gave them for the potter's field, as the LORD directed me."
This text again makes me think that Judas didn’t really know what he was doing when he betrayed Jesus. If he had known that he was betraying Jesus to His death, why would he now be remorseful? If he had thought otherwise before, why would he now suddenly realize that Jesus was innocent? What could have happened between just the evening before and this morning to change his thoughts about all of this? I believe that Judas never knew that he was betraying Jesus to his death, and never thought of Jesus as anything other than innocent. I still think that the chief priests had used some trickery to get Judas to do this for them and Judas had no idea of what he was aiding in, or felt he had no choice in the matter. And now that Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, Judas realized the magnitude of what he had done.
The next text is interesting, though I wish I understood the role of the chief priests and elders of the time. I assume that the chief priests and elders knew the law. I assume that they were the ones people would go to with religious questions. Here Judas came to them in remorse saying he sinned by betraying innocent blood. Was he asking for religious guidance? What could he do to atone for his sin? But they would have nothing to do with helping Judas when they said “What is it to us?” They would not recommend anything for atonement when they said “You see to it.”
Or maybe the law said that the penalty for betraying innocent blood is death. Maybe their question of “What is that to us?”, meant they didn’t have anything to do with betraying innocent blood. Maybe their statement of “You see to it”, was their instruction to Judas that his sin could only be atoned by his death, but they would not do it. He would have to do it himself.
Either way, Judas could not live with what he had done and hanged himself. As Jesus said in Matthew 26:24, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." At this point, Judas probably wished he had never lived to do what he did.
And what of the 30 pieces of silver that the chief priests had paid Judas to betray Jesus? It is almost poetic what happened to it. That 30 pieces of silver was the worth placed on Jesus, a price determined by the chief priests and elders. The money used to buy Jesus’ life was then used to buy land to bury strangers. Jesus purchased our salvation with His life. The money used to purchase His life was spent on a field for strangers in their death. Jesus’ life was given for everyone, even strangers. In Jesus we are all given a home, a resting place. It was paid for by His blood.