Daily Devotional For Monday, March 16, 2026
Good day Southside. We are making our way through Matthew’s Gospel in these devotionals. Today, we come to Matthew 27:1-10:
“Very early in the morning the leading priests and the elders of the people met again to lay plans for putting Jesus to death. (2) Then they bound Him, led Him away, and took Him to Pilate, the Roman governor. (3) When Judas, who had betrayed Him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. (4) ‘I have sinned,’ he declared, “‘or I have betrayed an innocent man.’ ‘What do we care?’ they retorted. ‘That’s your problem.’ (5) Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself. (6) The leading priests picked up the coins. ‘It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury,’ they said, ‘since it was payment for murder.’ (7) After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter’s field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. (8) That is why the field is still called the Field of Blood. (9) This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says, ‘They took the thirty pieces of silver—the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel, (10) and purchased the potter’s field, as the Lord directed” (NLT).
What we see here is a kind of “rubber stamp” to something. All the religious leaders simply come together to finalize their game plan. There is no hearing. No defense. No real trial – just a verdict and a referral to Pilate, the governor. Only Rome could execute anyone and in John’s Gospel, the religious leaders remind Pilate of that (see John 18:31). Matthew reveals Judas’ remorse and the action he took to deal with it – suicide, which would be a sin. So, was his course of action right? Do we commit another sin to fix a previous sin? NO! What do we do? We repent and seek the Lord’s forgiveness.
In the United States, suicide rates in the top killers of people. In recent years, twice as many people have killed themselves in the USA than have killed others. Many experts believe that one of the main reasons for suicide is retaliation against those who have hurt them or abused them. They choose as their only option to inflict hurt inflicted on those who hurt them. This is usually the case when young people commit suicide. They are getting back at parents or other siblings or some other relative or even close friend. In eastern cultures, suicide is much higher because they believe in reincarnation – they want to be reborn back here under better circumstances. In fact, the Internet Dictionary Wikipedia list hundreds of songs about suicide that deal with the loss, grief and guilt of losing someone by suicide (Songs About Suicide).
I do not believe that Judas was retaliating against Jesus. Jesus loved Judas just as much as He loved the 11 other disciples. Judas committed suicide over regret, not out of repentance. “Repentance” refers to an attitude in which an individual attains a divinely provided new understanding of their behavior or actions that are wrong and sinful and feels compelled to change that behavior and begin a new relationship with God out of love from God and to God.
Like Peter, Judas has an apparent change of heart. It says that Judas was filled with remorse. It is my personal opinion that Judas thought Jesus needed a push to establish His earthly kingdom. With all the supernatural power Jesus had, Rome would be gone in a thought by Jesus. It says Judas “realized” and “filled” are the same Greek New Testament word [μεταμέλομαι; metamelomai]. This word refers to “a change of emotion, not a change of choice.” I think that all of a sudden when Jesus did not immediately respond to the push by Jesus to establish His earthly kingdom, Judas had an epiphany that he had totally misunderstood Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and Jesus’ kingdom.
Jesus came to establish a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly one. Jesus made this clear to Pilate in John 18:36. Judas does not repent, he regrets. There is a huge difference between the two. Repent means to admit you were wrong, you have sinned both in your external comments and actions as well as in your heart. Repent means to do a 180. Judas knew the forgiving nature of Jesus. He had seen Jesus express forgiveness to so many people over 3 years. Regret does not mean you necessarily feel sorrow for what you did; only sorry you got caught. Our prisons are filled with prisoners who are regretful they got caught; not repenting they did.
We can regret the hurt we brought to someone without feeling what we did was wrong. To ease his guilty conscience and soul, Judas attempts to return the money. The religious leaders will not accept “blood money,” only indicting them in their own guilt in Jesus’ death. Though Judas admits he has sinned, there is no proof he was repenting here, but only regretting. There is nothing to let us believe Judas anything other than regretful.
To commit suicide by hanging was consider in that day to be judged to hell for all eternity. This was based on the Old Testament Law found in Deuteronomy 21:22-23. Matthew is the only one of the Gospels who gives this story of Judas. I think it is Matthew’s way of warning all of us of the dangers of apostasy. The religious leaders are not moved by Judas’ regret and show no sympathy nor empathy towards him. They simply used him to get Jesus.
The religious leaders refuse to accept the money Judas has thrown at them because in their mind it is now “unclean.” Their unwillingness to accept shows how unclean they were. So, unclean money buys an unclean place for unclean people. Matthew mentions it as a “Potter’s Field,” as if his readers knew this place and its location. Most scholars think it was in the east end of the Valley of Hinnon, just south of Jerusalem. Hinnon was where they burned their trash. Over time a new name was associated with this cemetery for Gentiles – “The Field of Blood.”
I think the reason Matthew gives us the story of Judas’ suicide is so that he can show us how this fulfilled another Old Testament prophecy found in both Jeremiah (Jer. 32:6-9) and Zechariah (Zech. 11:12-13). Though these Old Testament passages do not speak directly to these events, Matthew sees similarities to them. We see such similarities in Jeremiah 18:2-3. Matthew is not falsifying prophetic passages in history in order to conform them to his text. Rather, he is seeking prophetic passages that may in some way illuminate and explain the events that were occurring in his time.
For the religious leaders, this was their “gotcha” moment. Even though some of the miracles Jesus did, restoring sight to the blind, they had taught that only the Messiah could do this and if such a person ever did it, he had to be the Messiah. Even though all the evidence proved that Jesus was the Messiah, their stereotype of what a Messiah should be did not fit Jesus. Their minds were made up and settled just like the death of Jesus would be.
Reflection Assignment: Have you ever been caught “red-handed” doing something wrong and you admitted to the wrong externally, but internally you did not? Well, then you understand Judas some. What sin is the Lord convicting you of that you are regretful but repentful? You regret that it happened and turned out the way it did, but you did not really believe you have any real responsibility in the results? Churches are full of people like this. Are you one of them?
Scripture To Mediate On: Romans 2:4, “Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (NIV).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I need to repent of some sins to You rather than just feel regret for them. So, I am throwing myself on Your mercy knowing You are a merciful and forgiving God. I seek from You what I do not deserve – Your grace. I admit my sin and I will do 180 with them out of gratitude to Your grace to me. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly