The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 618

wns conquered by Pompey, and made tributary to the Roman~, yet it was not until about two years before this that it was made part of the province of Syria. Then the power of capital punishment was taken from the Jews. Surely the sceptre had now departed, nnd Shiloh must have come (see Gen. xlix. 10). Doubting whether the Roman governor would put Jesus to death for an alleged offence in religion, the Sanhedrin resolve to accuse him of treason against the Romans on the ground of his hnving allowed himself to be saluted as King of the Jews (cf. ver. 11; Luke xxiii. 2; John xviii. 31). This decision brought Judas again upon the scene (ver. 3, etc.). I. WHAT COULD THIBTY SHEKELS DO? 1. They could sell Christ into the hands of murderers. The prophecy in Zcchariah sets forth: (1) That God appointed one eminent Shepherd to feed the Jewish people, who are called" the flock of slaughter," evidently iii anticipation of what they should suffer from the Romans. This blesserl Person ia Divine, and confessedly Messiah (see Zeeb. xi. 7). (2) That the ordinary guides had no regard for their charge: "Their own shepherds pity them not" (Zeeb. xi. 5). This was literally the case with the Jewish rulers, Pharisees, scribes, and priests, in our Lord's time. (3) That between these unworthy shepherds and the shepherds of God's appointing there was strong enmity: "My soul loathed them, u.nd their soul also abhorred me." So Christ had a holy loathing for the pride, hypocr.sy, and wickedness of the_ scribes and Pharisees, and they cherished a malignant hatred of him for his purity and truth. (4) That he gives up his charge in judicial vi.~itation. And here follows an awful description of the ruin to be brought upon them by the Romans (see ver. 9). (5) That the covenant between him and his people was broken, viz. the Sinai covenant, and bis people rejected, because they refused the covenant from Zion which came to replace it (Zech. xi.10). (6) That some of the people, however, should admit Messiah's claims. "So the poor of the flock," etc. (Zech. ix. 11). These were evidently the disciples of Jesus, who were chiefly from the humbler ciasses. (7) That in contrast to these, the beads of the nation estimate Messiah at the price of a slave: "thirty pieces of silver "-the "goodly price," as he sarcastically observes, "that I was prised at of them" (Zech. xi 12, 13). When they had an opportunity of with- drawing from their infamous bargain with Judas, they refused it. 2. They could pur- chase "the potters field, to bury strangers in." This field was thenceforth called " The field of blood," and thereby became: (1) A monument to the truth of Scripture. Zechariah continues, "And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord" (cf. vers. 3-10; Zech. x.i. 13). (2) A monument of the innocence of Jesus. This act of Judas was ordained bv Providence to refute the sceptic who otherwise could object that Jesus was crucifi~d as an impostor, on the testimony of a disciple who knew him well. In confessing Jesus innocent, Jndas acknowledged his Mcssiahship, for otherwise he would not have been innocent. In this confession of Judas we have a specimen of the victory of Christ over Satan, and a warning to persecutors. (3) A monument of the infamy of the traitor and of the rulers. And it remained so when Matthew wrote. Jerome also says that in his days it was to be seen .in lElia (the name of the city built on the site of Jerusalem), on the south side of Mount Zion. ( 4) It was "to bury strangers in." The unclean "stranger" must not, even in his burial, come near to the" holy" villains who murdered their Messiah! The "stranger" has a Friend in Jesus. As the priests by procuring the Lord's death had been unwitting agents in procuring the redemption of the world, so in the final disposal of the price of his blood they unconsciously diJ. an act which represents the reception of the Lord's salvation by the Gentiles. He that has his burial through the blood of Christ may hope also for a resurrection through it. II. WHAT COULD THE SHEKELS NOT no? 1. They could not redeem Christ from death. (1) Over that mile lying between the house of Caiapha.s to that of Pilate, they led him away, "from pris,m and from judgrnent " (see Isa. liii. 7, 8), to "deliver him to the Gentiles," according to his prediction (cf. eh. xx. 19; John xviii. 32). The Churchmen of tho Apostasy imitated their Jewish predecessors when they called in the civil power to shed for them the blood of the martyrs. (2) The bonds in which Jesus was now led differed from those in which he w11s carried to Annas. They were those special bonds which marked it to be the will of his pe.rsecutors that he shouhl be crucified (soe John xxi. 18). So we note that Jesus was put to death by his own countrymen in his true uharacter as tlrn " Son of God; " and by the Romans as 624 THE GOSPEL ACOORDING 'l'O ST, MATTHEW. [oH. xxvu. 1-08,