+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
As you may know, in our five Midweek Lenten Vespers Services this year, we are hearing St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’s Passion, and we are reflecting on an arguable example of prophecy’s being fulfilled in each of the five “location” portions of that Passion account that we hear over the five Services. Each example of prophecy and its fulfillment reiterates for us God’s will and work to save us sinners who both are sorry for our sins and trust God to forgive us by grace for Jesus’s sake. Three weeks ago, we considered how, in the Upper Room, Jesus seemed to speak about His, in some sense, actively fulfilling Psalm 41 verse 9, about the one who ate His bread’s lifting his heel against Him; two weeks ago, we considered how, on the way to Gethsemane, Jesus spoke about His and His disciples in some sense passively fulfilling Zechariah 13 verse 7, about the Lord of Hosts’s striking the shepherd and thereby scattering the sheep of the flock; one week ago, we considered how, at the Palace of the High Priest, Peter actively fulfilled Matthew 26 verse 34, about his denying Jesus three times before the rooster crows; and this week, we consider how, in connection with the Praetorium, the Jewish leaders actively fulfill verses from Jeremiah and Zechariah, about their taking the thirty pieces of silver that they originally gave to Judas to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:14-15) and giving them for a potter’s field.
As we heard in the Reading, Judas, Jesus’s betrayer, having seen that Jesus was condemned, then changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, seemingly right as the Jewish leaders were leading Jesus away to deliver Him over to Pilate the governor (Lenski ad loc Matthew 27:3, 4, pp.1078, 1079). Judas confessed his sin; but the Jewish leaders did not absolve him; and, although we are not told exactly when, Judas, having thrown the pieces of silver into the temple itself, departed and went and hanged himself. Presumably at some point later, the Jewish leaders, having taken the silver pieces and having taken counsel, bought with them the potter’s field. “Then”, the Reading says, “was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah”, after which statement the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew gives words from Jeremiah and Zechariah, arguably more‑so from Zechariah colored by Jeremiah, but perhaps referring to Jeremiah as the more significant of the two prophets, or trying to make sure that the allusion to Jeremiah is not missed alongside the reference to what may be a better-known passage from Zechariah. At a minimum, what is said to be common to Zechariah and Matthew is the people’s low estimation and ultimate rejection of the Lord’s shepherd over them (Roehrs-Franzmann, ad loc Matthew 27:9, p.40). Whatever problems we might have establishing the original texts of Jeremiah and Zechariah, understanding them in their original contexts, understanding what St. Matthew’s Gospel account says, or harmonizing it with the related verses in the book of Acts (Acts 1:18-19), those problems are our problems and do not take away anything from God’s inspired and therefore inerrant Word.
That inspired and therefore inerrant Word confronts us with our own similarities to Judas. We do not betray Jesus in precisely the same way that Judas did, obviously, but we betray Jesus in other ways. We also might wonder how one of Jesus’s twelve disciples‑turned‑apostles ever got to a point where he sold Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver, but we may not wonder if the evil of sin in our own lives is developing and growing (Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 27:3-10, pp.1506‑1507). We also might want to accuse the Jewish leaders of malpractice, for Judas only law and no Gospel (confer Smalcald Articles III:iii:7 and Formula of Concord Epitome V:8), and so blame the Jewish leaders for Judas’s despair and resulting suicide, but Judas confessed to them and did not seek out absolution from Jesus or even from one of his fellow apostles (confer Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 27:3-10, p.1507 and p.1510 n.73), and we might not even be willing to confess the sins that particularly trouble us or seek out absolution from our own pastor but try to see to our sin ourselves and so wrestle with our own despair and have or own thoughts of suicide. Through God’s Word the Holy Spirit calls and enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin and to trust God to forgive our sin.
As we heard in the Reading, Judas “changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver”, maybe even bringing back the silver as fruit of his changing his mind (confer Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 27:3, p.1494). The particular Greek word used for Judas’s “change of mind” is not the word that the New Testament usually uses for repentance, though the particular Greek word apparently is used earlier in St. Matthew’s Gospel account for repentance’s combination of contrition and faith (Matthew 21:29, 32). Whenever Judas hung himself, Judas lacked faith that God would forgive him, faith that Peter had, if not right away, then at least at some point after his denials of Jesus (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XII:8, 36). When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our actual sin—our betrayals of Jesus, our not addressing the evil of sin developing and growing in our lives, our not confessing and seeking absolution from our pastors, or whatever our actual sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
Out of His great love, God planned from eternity to save us from our sin by sacrificing His Son on the cross. Jesus’s death and all of the events connected to it were within God’s complete plan both fore‑told and forth‑told by Holy Scripture (Davies and Allison, ad loc Matthew 27:3-10, p.558), as St. Matthew’s Gospel account makes especially clear with passages such as that we heard tonight and nine other passages earlier in His account, in which he says that what happened, in fact, happened in order to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by His prophetic Word of Holy Scripture (confer Carson, 561, cited by Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 27:3-10, p.1499 n.32). Judas was concerned about the thirty pieces of silver and betraying innocent blood, but we know that Jesus redeemed us lost and condemned people, purchased and won us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death (Small Catechism II:4; confer 1 Peter 1:18-19). His innocence made His blood able to be sacrificed for us, and He freely gives to us the benefits of His sacrifice through His Word and Sacraments.
Interesting is the question of what the Jewish leaders might have said or done with Judas if they had been more faithful to their offices. Would they have pointed to Judas’s circumcision as having included Judas among God’s people? Would they have heard Judas’s confession at greater length and assured him of his forgiveness in view of the coming Messiah’s once‑and‑for‑all sacrifice? Would they have reminded Judas of his participation in sacrifices such as through the Passover meal? Those questions are interesting, but thosee questions are also moot, that is, they are academic and no longer relevant, because those Old Testament means of grace have been replaced for us by the New Testament means of grace: Holy Scripture, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper of Christ’s Body and Blood in, with, and under bread and wine. When Jesus earlier that night poured out His innocent blood of the covenant for His disciples to drink (Matthew 26:27‑28), Jesus included Judas (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration VII:33, 60), perhaps paradoxically wanting Judas to return to Him, while at the same time knowing that Judas would not return to Him, as God interacts with all humanity, wanting all sinners everywhere to return to Him, while at the same time knowing those who will not return to Him. Those of us who are sorry for our sin and do trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, God forgives, as in all of these ways, faithful pastors care for the souls of those believers entrusted to them, comforting their consciences and strengthening them in body and soul unto life everlasting.
Tonight, we have considered St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’s Passion’s fulfilling specifically the prophecy of verses from Jeremiah and Zechariah. One other example of prophecy fulfilled will come next week. As Jesus generalized elsewhere, what is written in the Scriptures that must be fulfilled is both that He should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations (Luke 24:44-47). So repentance and forgiveness has been proclaimed to us; may God use us likewise to proclaim to others.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
