Matthew 27:5 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 27:5

Comments

He could not keep the proceeds of his betrayal. He regretted what he had done, and could no longer keep the money. He had wanted that money, and counted it a profitable exchange, but now his conscience troubled him. His guilt stared him in the face and to profit from his wickedness was impossible. Those thirty pieces of silver which meant so much to him just a little while ago, are hurled to the ground, not so much in temper as in a horror of regret. But to throw away the profit of sin is not so easily done. Judas cannot so simply separate himself from his sin. Sin and its consequences stick to us with terrible force. We cannot go back and change what happened five seconds ago; we cannot rewrite what is written in God’s book as the record of our lives. Only he can delete our sins and forget them and put them as far as the east is from the west away from us. The indelible nature of sin is the unforgetting knowledge of God. Judas then hung himself. There is no refuge in death for the sinner, for ‘death and hell [will deliver] up the dead which [are] in them’ (Revelation 20:13) – there can be no escaping the judgment of God. It is true that men prefer death to facing their Judge (Revelation 6:16), for they cannot bear to have his holy eyes looking at their sin when it is not covered by the blood of Christ. Conscience does not cease to operate in death, and the pain that is gives to the living is not relieved there. Judas did another vain thing.

Application

Sin does not look very far ahead. It does not see what should be obvious. It misreads what gives pleasure to the soul and leaves out of the reckoning a massive factor that ought to be taken into account. When temptation offers us the pleasures of sin, inside the sweetmeat it hides the barbed hook. The sinner sees the one and ignores the other. Is this a good calculation? Like Judas, he does not think so later. The latter end of the matter has more reality to it than the first look towards sin.

Questions

In Acts 1:18 Peter says Judas purchased a field with the reward of iniquity – that is, the thirty pieces of silver. He also says that ‘and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.’ Are these contradictions? No. Peter is using graphic language in saying that Judas bought it. That was the end result of his action, but others used to the money he had thrown down to actually make the purchase. After his death, what can be said for him? He has purchased a field. He hanged himself and burst asunder. Did he cast himself over a steep place so that he ruptured and died? Did his body remain hung by the neck until it decayed and fell to the ground and burst open? We are not told, but either is possible.

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Matthew 27:5 Commentary and Bible Study