Sin is Not What You Think (Matthew 27:1-10)
Sin is probably not what you think it is. It’s not just a case of it being bad, as a matter of fact the reality is that it’s probably many times worse than anything you can imagine. The one individual in the bible that is perhaps illustrates just how bad it is is probably a guy named Judas. Now we know about Judas, because he’s the one that betrayed Jesus’ right, betrayed him with a kiss in fact, that image of betrayal has entered the lexicon of thought for over 2000 years now. As a result, Jesus was arrested, tried, and eventually crucified, what could that kind of man possibly teach us what could such a diabolical figure teach us that would be anything of spiritual value. Well, a whole lot in fact, which is why I would like to invite your attention to Matthew chapter 27 which is where his story is recorded particularly the events after he betrayed the Lord.
1 When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. 2 And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor. 3 Then 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, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” 5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. 6 But 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.” 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10 and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.
(Matthew 27: 1-10)
This passage is rather straightforward and simple it tells us what happened to Judas, but first it tells us about a decision the Sanhedrin made and then it tells us about Judas his reaction to all of this and his eventual suicide, and then of all things it focuses on the money he received. Those are the three parts of the passage, the decision of the Sanhedrin, the suicide of Judas ,and the silver that was used to buy a cemetery.
We know from the other Gospel account that this was the third Jewish trial of Jesus. I mentioned that there we’re actually six different trials ,three Jewish and three Roman the first was before Annais the second was by Caiaphas and this is the third was held before the men who made up the Sanhedrin. I should point out that the other two meetings were illegal, I explained that when we came upon the second trial which for one thing was held in the middle of the night ,and it was an illegal for Jewish trials to be done that way. This passage now says, when morning came, in other words they had to have an official meeting of the Sanhedrin all the chief priests and elders of the ruling religious body in Jerusalem those who had plotted against Jesus to put him to death.
What had Jesus done that was worthy of death? The answer is nothing legally, so how could they concoct some kind of a charge or a plot to get him put to death. Well, we saw in the last episode that when Jesus stood before the governor the governor asked him, are you king of the Jews? Apparently, he got that from the Sanhedrin and they were charging him with being king of the Jews. That conclusion is confirmed by a verse in the gospel of Luke that gives us more detail about this particular item it says that they accused him saying, “We found this prophet perverting the nation and forbidding anyone to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ a king.
There were three charges levelled against Jesus here. He was claiming to be the Messiah the King of Israel, It was primarily in response to that plot but that they wanted was to put him to death, however the Jewish leadership at that time was under the control of Rome and they did not have the power to do that. Which is why is tells us they bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilot, the governor of the region. For it was only the Roman governor who could pronounce a death sentence on a prisoner.
So, they got their accusation they’re charged that he was claiming to be king and refusing to pay taxes and all this political stuff but they had to deliver him to Pilot because he is the only one that can pronounce the death sentence. All of that is sort of the backdrop to the story of Judas. When Judas his betrayer sees that he had been condemned his and realizes what exactly was going to happen, his reaction kicks in.
Which we’re going to look at in a moment, but first let me say that some who look at this passage conclude based on this verse that apparently Judas didn’t think this was going to lead to his death. It almost seems that he was surprised that Jesus was going to be condemned to death and delivered to Pontius Pilate. We don’t know that for a fact, but we can see that there is at least a sort of realization of how this is all going to play out and his reaction is really interesting. at least to me. The first thing that happened is the text says is that he was remorseful he regretted what he did, he felt sorry for what himself.
Let me ask you a question have read in the Bible that it says we have to be sorry for our sins in order to be saved. Have you ever heard that, well here’s a case where a guy was sorry in Matthew chapter 27, but I want you to turn to second Corinthians Chapter 7-10, says. “Godly sorrow produces repentance”. all right now here’s a verse that talks about being sorry and if you’re sorry that can lead to genuine repentance, which is nothing more than a change of your mind. Let me ask you this do you have to be sorry in order to repent? Repent means to change your mind, so you might be surprised to hear that I believe the answer is , no!
As a matter of fact, in Romans chapter 2 verse four it says that, “The goodness of God leads to repentance, so you could feel blessed and change your mind about God and his son Jesus Christ”. So, feeling sorrow can lead to repentance but you don’t have to be sorry necessarily just to repent. Second Corinthians 7 verse 10 says, “Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation”.You can have sorrow and that can lead to godly repentance meaning your repenting and thinking about what happened or what you did wrong and look at it from God’s point of view. But it is also possible to be sorry about something but not change your mind. Isn’t that what Judas did. There is a very common idea that that’s often quoted which says you are sorry you got caught but you’re not sorry that you did it.
Perhaps that’s an illustration of a certain type of sorrow, but I’m not sure that that was all that was going on here.
I am sure of Judas genuinely felt sorry, but he didn’t change his mind about Jesus and trust in him. If you ever heard anyone preaching that you have to be sorry for what you have done, instead of you have to repent, then with respect, I don’t believe preachers who that say that are not accurately reflecting what the scripture says about salvation. They’re not reflecting accurately what the scripture says about salvation, but they are also not accurately representing what the Bible says about repentance either. Here is a case where a man was sorry and yet he hadn’t changed his mind. In 2 Peter preaches a sermon and in it he says to the people he is writing to that they crucified the Lord of glory, and the audience was pricked in their heart they felt sorry. At that point they got it, we attributed to the death of somebody that was innocent and the tect then says they said to Peter, “What must we do now”, now they are already sorry, and Peter says repent. So just being sorry is not repenting those are two different things, the sorrow can lead to repentance but not always.
Judas is an illustration of somebody who was remorseful, but he didn’t change his mind about trusting in Jesus Christ. There’s more, let’s go back to Matthew chapter 27, the text says and this is a real shocker, verse four, “ I have sinned betraying innocent blood, so, right the first thing Judas did is he was remorseful the second thing is he confessed his sin, isn’t that interesting. Have you ever heard anyone say you have to be sorry and confess you sin your sin in order to be saved, well here’s a guy that was remorseful and confessed his sin and he still didn’t repent.
He’s not alone in the book of exodus we are told that the Pharaoh said I have sinned this time he also acknowledged that he was wicked, as a matter of fact, he it twice. In chapter 10 of Exodus, he calls for Moses and Aaron in haste and says I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Was pharaoh saved at this point, no! Isn’t this amazing you can feel sorry for something you’ve done and not repent you can confess your sin and not seek a saviour it’s worse go back to Matthew chapter 27 and look at verse three. Judas has betrayed him; he feels remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. Judas was remorseful, Judas confessed he had sinned, and Judas even made restoration restitution he brought back the money back.
Now I can just imagine some people preaching you really got to make amends, make restitution. If you want to have restitution that’s good and commendable but don’t do it just to ease your conscience. I’d like to make an observation here and I think this is very important. We know from the text is that he was remorseful that he felt guilty and he brought back the money, and I think it is possible for people who feel like they’ve really done something wrong to want to go do something good to soothe their conscience as a matter of fact I suspect that goes on a lot and thereafter they don’t feel as guilty because they did something good to rebalance the scales so to speak. Meaning that they don’t seek forgiveness by repenting or trusting in God, but the bible clearly teaches salvation is by grace through faith. What Judas did not do was trust Jesus Christ for the gift of eternal life, imagine doing all of that being remorseful confessing and even attempting to make restitution and still not trusting Jesus. When he took the thirty pieces of silver back it says, they saids what do we have to do with this, you go figure it out, so he took the money and threw it down in the temple floor, then he went out and he hanged himself. He was so close, and of all things he commits suicide.
What led him to do that, well I believe there are several factors that can lead anyone to commit suicide. Now, this list is not exhaustive, there are other factors, and every case is different but I would like to explore something that I think happens in more cases than we are aware of and Judas is an illustration of this. Let me throw out some suggestions, some things for you to think about in this kind of a situation. he first thing I would say is this in Judas’s case we’re told Satan entered him. I don’t think that happens in every case but it happened in this case and I do think there are cases where there’s a Satanic aspect to it. I don’t think that’s in every case, but I do think that’s a possibility and it certainly was with Judas.
One thing we know about Judas is that he betrayed Jesus, why did he do that? Could he have done that because he had the love of money, we know from the account of this in the of the gospel of John that he was the treasurer of the 12 disciples. We also know from that same passage in John chapter 12 that he was a thief, and he stole money out of the treasury, and we also know that when Mary anointed Jesus with a very expensive oil he complained and even convinced all the other disciples to chime in so he clearly had a problem with money.
Paul reminds us in first Timothy that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, here is a case where a man fell into this trap and at least part of that explanation is that he was after the money only when he got it and realized all the consequences of it he went down another road and it began with remorse deep emotional pain and eventually led to his suicide. I began this podcast today by saying, sin is not what you think. It probably worse than you ever imagined, as a matter of fact, it’s many times worse than you can ever imagine. Sin can lead to destruction and even death that’s how bad it can be. I would like to suggest that there is an emotional element to this, not in every case necessary but in some cases and I want to explain what that means.
The answer of why this is happened here is that his emotions controlled his reason, he was so carnal he was not rational, he followed his feelings rather than his insight drive his decision making. I make that observation on this passage based on the fact that all this passage tells us is that he was remorseful and that he felt guilt about what he had done. Do you know what the number one reason people commit suicide, and I am quoting right out of the handbook of a Christian psychologist who wrote. Quote, “People who commit suicide do not want to feel the pain of losing” they don’t want to feel the pain they are feeling anymore the emotion begins to control what they do, not their reason”. Maybe that why they can’t rationally even see the pain they are going to cause to their loved one even their children, they just want the emotional pain to stop, and they want to step out of the driving seat of that emotions as it continues to drive their lives.
He went on to say “They don’t want to feel the pain of finally losing that job, or money or that relationship”.
One of this psychologists main jobs was the evaluating people at the A&E (ER) of when people came in who were suicidal or who had attempted to commit suicide. His job was to evaluate them to see whether or not they need to be detained under the mental capacity act. He estimates that he saw somewhere near 1000 people in that role. He said would estimate that 75% of the people he saw in the ER of a hospital who had attempted to commit suicide did so because of a breakup of a relationship and the relationship was in the majority of cases only three months long. People in the emotional whirl of a new romance or relationship when it ends suddenly find that they react emotionally, and it overrides all reason the majority of the remaining cases he said was triggered by feeling of guild. In most of those cases they felt like there was no hope out of their dilemma they felt hopelessness and emotion then took over. I came across this statement another mental health professional had written on this subject. “People usually commit suicide because they can’t get away from themselves and the disquieting thoughts that come when they’re alone”.
Recently whilst meeting with a local Philosophy society, as a group we were discussing the writing of Dr Karl Menninger, probably the most important clinical Psychiatrists of the late 20th century, after who a whole school of psychiatry is named, once said that if he "could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day."
I submit to you that Judas committed suicide because of the overcome emotion of guilt that tore at his soul. He tried to return the money he tried confessing, but he was not able to face the guilt and he didn’t have sense enough to take it to Lord and ask for forgiveness. I think there is an enormous lesson here for all of us and the lesson is simply this, you need to not let your emotions determine what you do. Reacting emotionally always has the potential to cause potential problems. Do you ever emotionally react to someone and later regret it. That’s what I think happened to Judas but there are other dimensions to the problem. I do not deny that, but I think at least part of what happened is he was reacting emotionally not rationally and certainly not spiritually. Now there’s one more facet for this passage and it’s rather expansive, it takes up half the passage, it’s about what they did with the money. It tells us he threw it down to the temple well, they decided that he couldn't put it in the temple treasury because it was blood money. But remember, they took the money out of the treasury and gave it to Judas to pay him to allow them to get to kill Jesus. Then next the chief priest fishes the coins out and they end up buying a cemetery with it. I find that fascinating, and by the way they called it the Potters field, because it was where the Potters got their clay.
It was to become the field and they used it to bury strangers and what were called gentile proselytes, God fears people who were in Jerusalem when they died. Judas killed himself and they used the money to buy of all things a cemetery, the wages of sin it seem was surely death.
So how bad is sin, sin kills, Sin can kill a career, sin can kill a marriage, sin can lead to suicide. I think it’s the bottom of all of this is the wage of sin is death, you can get so far away from the Lord that the end result is death.
I began by saying at the start of today’s message that sin is not what you think it is, it’s and it’s probably many times worse than you can imagine, and this story illustrates that the wages of sin is death. Judas thought that money would bring him a degree of pleasure, but it brought him nothing but misery. He ultimately not only lost the money, but he lost his life also. Sin may bring a sort of temporary sense of pleasure but it doesn’t bring happiness and can actually lead to hatred and suicide. I think there’s a potential for all of us to little bit of Judas in all of us.
I’m told when da Vinci painted the Last Supper when he got to Judas he used as a model someone he didn’t really like to work with, he then went to be a found he couldn’t sleep, he felt bad something was not right about that, the next day he went back and he repainted Judas and he made him with features that look more like himself.
In conclusion let me finish by saying there are a many people who study this passage say that it is arranged in such a way as to put in contrast stark contrast Peter and Judas. Now there’s a chapter break, between them, yesterday week we looked at Peter and the end of chapter 26 and this week we’re looking at Judas, remember there is no chapter break in the original text. Some say Matthew puts them in juxtaposition to one another in order to put them in contrast to each other. So, what’s the contrast? May I suggest that Matthew was telling us in a subtle kind of literary way be like Peter when you sin, confessed it and to use the Lord’s own phrase he returned to the Lord.God thereafter used him in a mighty way.
Judas sinned, then he tried to fix it himself, he tried to give it back, he was remorseful, but he tied to undo it himself and, in the end, he committed suicide. I think the great lesson in this extended passage is don’t be like Judas, be like Peter. God blessed one and dealt with the other. Don’t be like Judas, be like Peter. Even when you’re tempted and even when you fall seek far from the Lord deal with it properly, don’t react emotion and by turning towards God with your shortcomings he can forgive them and allow you to continue in his service in the light of that forgiveness and thereby continue to receive his blessings.