The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 533

Church, keeping alive the sweet memory of Mary, urging countless Christian men and women to follow her example. . Ill. 'l'HE BETRAYAL. 1. Judas. ~re was one to whom the fra<1rance of that perfume was a savour of death unto death. He bore an honoured na~e a name of religious significance. "Now will I praise the Lord," said Leah, when she gave that name to her fourth son. And he was one of the twelve, as all the evan:;elists te!L us, to mark the. strangeness, the exceeding guilt, of his sin. Yet we suppose he must have been hke the others when the Lord first chose him to be near unto himself. He must have been, we think, full of bright promise. Certainly he, like the rest of the apostles, forsook all and followed Christ (eh. xix. 27). The good seed had been sown in his heart, and it soon sprang up; but there were thorn-roots there too; and they, alas! shot up into e"il luxuriance, and choked the· good seed,· and dominated the whole life. Probably he had been fascinated by those dreams of earthly splendour and an earthly kingdom which the apostles en·e,·tained so long. •He had hoped, like James an~ John, for some high place near the King; but his ambition was more selfish than theirs. And when the Lord would not claim the throne of David, when be would not allow the enthusiastic multitudes to make him a Kina, when he spoke of seeming failure, of impending death, and that the death of the c;oss, Judas was hurt, offended, disgusted with the service which he bad chosen. And, St John tells us, there was one ruling sin in bis heart-the degrading vice of avar\ce. Judas had shown, perhaps, an aptitude for business; he had been entrusted with the bag which contained the alms of those who ministered to the Lord of their substance. Perhaps he had sought the office of purse-bearer; and, alas! it was a snare to him, for he was a thief. Probably be had been long brooding over disappointments, fancied vexations, covetous hopes; for no one becomes utterly base in a moment. A year ago the Lord bad spoken of him in words of awful warning (John vi. 70). He did not heed the Master's voice; probably he went on in his evil ways, feeding his secret vice by acts of petty dishonesty, till it became a tyrant passion ruling the whole man .. debasing the whole character. He bad yielded himself little by little to trurpower of Satan; at last be had become his captive; nciw any little temptation would be suffi- cient to lure him to bis doom. The offering of Mary proved to be that last temptation. Satan, in his malice, brings evil out of good. Judas blamed her generosity. It was wasteful profusion, he said; that large sum ought to have been better spent. He wanted it, not really for the poor, but for the bag which he carried ; he would have appropriated it, in part at least, to his own use. The Lord's reproof "chafed )lim still more. His mention of his approaching burial crushed the last hopes, if any _hopes remained, of an earthly kingdom. Judas determined to forsake his Master. Nothing, he thought, could be gained by faithfulness; something might be gained by treachery. What an awful picture of the deceitfulness of sin, especially of that soul-destroying sin of avarice! 2. Bis agreement with the chief priests. IIe went to the_I!l as soon as be could, perhaps four days after the supper at Bethany ; his disappointment had been. rankling m his mind ever since. He was ready now to deliver his Master to ,death, and that for money. "What will ye give me?" he said, openly manifesting that miserable vice which he had hidden under the cloke of care for the poor. Alas! that one of the chosen twelve could say such words, could think such thoughts I He had heard the Lord's solemn question, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" And now he was going to sell his soul for a paltry bribe. 1'hey weighed unto ~im thirty pieces of silver; the price which Gv<l, speaking by the Prophet Zechar1ah (xi. 13), denounces as "a goodly price that I was prised at of them." Pr?bably they did not think of the prophet's words, or they would not have become the mstru- ments of fulfilling them. It was the price of a slave (see Exod. xxi. 32), far less tha.n the value of the offering of Mary, which had been the occasion, not the cause,_of this awful treachery. For this poor bribe he sold his Master, "and from that time· he sought opportunity to betray him." . LEssoNs. 1. No offering is too costly for the Lord's service. Let us imitate Mary _in her loving gifts. 2. Men will scoff at Christian generosity. Let us seek only the praise which cometh from God. 3. One of the twelve fell into deadly sin. Let none presume upon their spiritua.l privileges. 4. "'l'bc love of money is the root of all evil." Let us learn to love it not. oa. xxvr.1-76.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 630