Matthew 27:3

My Notes

What Does Matthew 27:3 Mean?

Judas sees the result of what he's done — Jesus is condemned — and something breaks in him. He "repented himself," but the Greek word here (metamelomai) is different from the word typically used for true repentance (metanoia). This is regret, not repentance. Remorse, not return. Judas felt the weight of his betrayal crushing him, but he turned toward self-destruction rather than toward God.

He brings back the money. Thirty pieces of silver — the price of a slave in Exodus 21, the amount Zechariah prophesied (Zechariah 11:12-13). He carries it to the chief priests and elders, the same men who paid him. He's trying to undo the transaction. Trying to reverse the irreversible. If I give back the money, maybe the betrayal didn't happen. But the money was never the point. The money was just the mechanism. The betrayal was already complete.

The chief priests' response in the following verses is telling: "What is that to us? See thou to that." They used Judas and discarded him. They needed a betrayer; they didn't need a guilty conscience. The transaction is done. The tool is no longer useful. Judas is left holding silver that no one will take back, standing in the temple of a God he's convinced won't take him back either.

The tragedy of Judas isn't that he sinned. Peter also denied Jesus and wept bitterly. The tragedy is that Judas took his guilt to the wrong place. He brought it to the priests instead of to Jesus. He tried to pay back what he'd done instead of asking to be forgiven. Remorse without return is a dead end.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What's the difference between regret and repentance? Which one do you tend toward when you've done something wrong?
• 2.Why do you think Judas went to the priests instead of to Jesus? What kept him from turning to the one person who could have forgiven him?
• 3.Have you ever tried to 'undo' a sin by returning what you took or fixing what you broke — only to find that the real issue was deeper? What happened?
• 4.Where do you take your guilt — to self-punishment, to other people, or to Jesus? What would it look like to bring it to Him instead?

Devotional

There are two kinds of sorrow over sin, and this verse shows you the one that kills. Judas felt the full weight of what he'd done. He wasn't numb. He wasn't in denial. He was devastated. He tried to make it right — he returned the money, he confessed to the priests. He did everything except the one thing that could have saved him: he didn't go to Jesus.

That's the pivot point between Peter's story and Judas's story. Both betrayed Jesus. Both were shattered by it. But Peter ran toward Jesus. Judas ran away from Him. Peter's weeping led to restoration on a beach in John 21. Judas's regret led to a rope and a field.

You will sin. You will do things that devastate you when you see the consequences. The question isn't whether you'll fail — it's where you'll take your failure. If you take it to self-punishment, to despair, to trying to earn your way back by undoing the damage — you're walking Judas's path. If you take it to Jesus, broken and empty-handed, with nothing to offer but the honest truth of what you've done — you're walking Peter's path.

The priests said, "What is that to us?" Jesus would never say that. The religious establishment doesn't care about your guilt. Jesus does. He's the only one who can do anything with it. Don't bring your thirty pieces of silver to a system that used you. Bring your broken heart to the Savior who was betrayed by you and loves you still.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture