Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. That detail is far more than a historical footnote. The price, the silver, the temple, and even the potter’s field were all anticipated centuries earlier by the prophet Zechariah. Matthew wants us to see that Judas’ betrayal was not merely an act of human treachery. It was the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan, and it carries a surprising message of hope for every sinner.
The details of Judas’ betrayal are worth considering. We read the full account in Matthew 26-27. Four details of this story carry significant weight. Matthew tells us that Judas agreed to betray Christ for thirty pieces of silver. After Jesus was arrested, Judas was overcome with guilt, confessed that he had betrayed innocent blood, and hurled the money back into the temple. The chief priests then used the silver to purchase a potter’s field, while Judas, consumed by despair, took his own life. This betrayal tragically consumed the lives of both Jesus and Judas. And yet there is more to this story than meets the eye.
The price tag for Christ’s head was valued by the priests at thirty pieces of silver. Why thirty pieces of silver? Why not twenty? Why not fifty? Matthew expects his readers to recognize that this was not an arbitrary sum.
Exodus 21 is a well known passage providing the Old Testament nation of Israel with a variety statutory laws. In that chapter we read what is to be done to the owner of an ox that gores a man or woman to death (Exodus 21:28-32). Depending on the negligence of the bull’s owner, various compensation might be required, including and up to the life of the bull’s owner (a life for a life). In verse 32 we read that if the owner’s “ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.” Thirty pieces of silver, according to Hebrew tradition, was the price of the life of a slave, the lowest in society.
In Zechariah 11:12, Israel exchanged their God for thirty pieces of silver. In that moment God sarcastically called this low rate of exchange “the lordly price.” As the commentator George Klein has said so eloquently, “His value to the entire nation did not even surpass the worth of one slave to a single family.” Israel’s greatest treasure was always to be their God, but in the days of Zechariah God had become as useful to them as a common slave.
Something deeply equivalent happens when Judas betrays Christ for thirty of pieces of silver. There is sort of prophetic fulfillment of Zechariah 11 that takes place. Judas, who had walked so intimately with Christ for three years, who had tasted and seen the goodness and beauty and value of Christ in a unique and special way, valued Christ’s life as that of a common slave.
The comparisons between the Zechariah passage and the Matthew passage continue. After receiving the thirty pieces of silver, Zechariah throws it back into the house of the Lord (Zechariah 11:13). This prophetically symbolic action communicated the impending destruction of Jerusalem. It was the prophet’s way of washing his hands entirely from the situation, and making a clean break. When Judas throws the blood money back into the temple, he was stricken with grief. A deep awareness of his awful deed had swept over him. Like Zechariah, he wanted a clean break from his own vileness. But restitution alone could not forgive and heal Judas’ betrayal. Judas experienced remorse, but never real repentance. His sorrow led him to despair instead of to faith.
When the Pharisees turn around and use the money to buy a potter’s field, Matthew the author is waving his hands in our faces saying, “Look, the prophecies written in Zechariah are happening before your very eyes!” And for us to fully appreciate the weight of Matthew’s connection we need to continue reading into Zechariah 12.
Zechariah 12 speaks of nation of Israel looking upon “him whom they have pierced”, a clear allusion to Christ’s death by crucifixion. Zechariah speaks of the entire nation mourning over their sin as they recognize the great evil of what they have done. Then he writes that on “that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1).
Judas looked down, when he should have looked up. He saw the silver. Then he saw the guilt. But he never looked at his savior. Judas threw the money back but couldn’t escape the grief-stricken horror of his own sin. Had he looked up, to the cross of Christ, where a fountain of mercy and grace was opened up for sinners of every kind, he would have found what he was looking for. Rather than his grief driving him to despair, he would have found his grief driving him to the cleansing fountain of life. The great tragedy of Judas is that he believed his sin was greater than Christ’s mercy. He died believing the fountain of love opened at the cross was insufficient to cover the excruciating pain of his sin.
Oh sinner, look up! See Christ on the cross. See the fountain of love bursting forth onto the pages of history for you. See the immeasurable oceans of grace that flow from our savior’s side. There is no sin so great that this fountain cannot remove. More than seventeen centuries after the death of Christ, William Cowper captures the hope that Judas never embraced with these timeless words.
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
Amen!
