CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 26:15. Covenanted with him.—Weighed unto him (R.V.). After the old custom. There had been in the land a coined shekel since the time of Simeon, 143 B.C.; but weighing seems to have still been customary in the temple treasury (Meyer). Or “weighed” may be simply equivalent to “paid.” Thirty pieces of silver.—I.e. thirty silver shekels. G. C. Williamson, D.Lit., in “The Money of the Bible,” says, “In the time of our Lord there were no shekels current (save, perhaps, a few of the old ones), although money was reckoned in shekels, very much as in the present day reckonings are made in guineas, although no coin of the value of a guinea is in use.” Judas may have been paid in Syrian or Phœnician tetradrachms, which were of the same weight (Madden). A shekel was between two and three shillings sterling. Perhaps this was but an earnest of a larger sum.
Matthew 26:17. The first day of the feast of unleavened bread.—“The feast of” omitted in R.V. The 14th of Nisan, which commenced after sunset on the 13th. Dr. Edersheim says: “Properly speaking, these two” [the “Passover” and “Feast of unleavened bread”] “are quite distinct, the ‘Passover’ taking place on the 14th of Nisan, and the ‘Feast of unleavened bread’ commencing on the 15th, and lasting for seven days, to the 21st of the month. But from their close connection they are generally treated as one, both in the Old and in the New Testament; and Josephus, on one occasion, even describes it as ‘a feast for eight days.’ ”
Matthew 26:18. To such a man.—The Greek word is that used when the writer knows, but does not care to mention, the name of the man referred to (Plumptre). The Master saith.—Therefore the host in question was a disciple, but not one of the Twelve (Bengel). My time is at hand.—For the disciples the “time” may have seemed the long-expected season of His manifesting Himself as King (Plumptre). I will keep.—I keep (R. V.). The arrangements had been previously made. It was usual for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to lend guest-chambers to the strangers who came to the feast (Carr).
Matthew 26:20. He sat down with the Twelve.—See R.V: sitting = reclining. The Paschal ceremonial, so far as it bears on the Gospel narrative, may be described as follows:—(a) The meal began with a cup of red wine mixed with water: this is the first cup mentioned, Luke 22:17. After this the guests washed their hands. Here probably must be placed the washing of the disciples’ feet (John 13). (b) The bitter herbs, symbolic of the bitter bondage in Egypt, were then brought in, together with unleavened cakes, and a sauce called charoseth, made of fruits and vinegar, into which the unleavened bread and bitter herbs were dipped. This explains John 13:26. (c) The second cup was then mixed and blessed like the first. The father then explained the meaning of the rite (Exodus 13:8). The first part of the “hallel” (Psalms 113, 114) was then chanted by the company, (d) After this the paschal lamb was placed before the guests. This is called in a special sense “the supper.” But at the Last Supper there was no paschal lamb. There was no need now of the typical lamb without blemish, for the antitype was there (1 Corinthians 5:7). At this point, when, according to the ordinary ritual, the company partook of the paschal lamb, Jesus “took bread and blessed it, and gave it to His disciples” (Matthew 26:26). (e) The third cup, or “cup of blessing,” so called because a special blessing was pronounced upon it, followed: “after supper He took the cup” (Luke). “He took the cup when He had supped” (Paul). This is the “cup” named in Matthew 26:27. (f) After the fourth cup the company chanted (see Matthew 26:30) the second part of the “hallel” (Psalms 115-118) (Carr.).
Matthew 26:25. Thou hast said.—A Hebrew form of affirmation.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 26:14-25
The guilt of betrayal.—This portion of Scripture begins (Matthew 26:14-16), and concludes (Matthew 26:23-25) with the mention of Judas Iscariot. Also in the middle (in Matthew 26:21) our Saviour has him in mind. We may rightly, therefore, use the whole passage as turning on Judas, and serving to show us the true nature of that which he did. It does so, in particular, by showing us, first, how much evil his purpose involved; and, secondly, how many obstacles his pertinacity overcame.
I. The evil involved.—What utter treachery, to begin. “Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed Him.” That is the first note in the case. Treachery towards One who had favoured him much. This Judas, it is also noted, was “one of the Twelve” (Matthew 26:14). One of those, i.e., who had been admitted to the special intimacy of the Man he betrayed. But for this honour he could not—as, but for his falseness, he would not—have done that which he did. Treachery also towards One who had trusted him much; in one respect, apparently (John 12:6), the most of the Twelve. Twofold, therefore, was the treachery of which he was guilty. He was false to kindness, and false to confidence too. Wholly spontaneous also, in the next place, his treachery seems to have been. It does not appear, from what we are told, that temptation assaulted him, as it were. It rather appears that he went after it, and sought it himself. “He went to the priests,” it is said (Matthew 26:14). Probably the idea of the Saviour being betrayed by one of His disciples had never occurred to them as a possible thing. And therefore, it was, probably, that they had never thought of making any attempt in that line. Probably, also, this accounts for the peculiar satisfaction (Mark 14:11) with which they seemed to have welcomed the communication of Judas. “Who would ever have thought of our receiving such an offer as this?” Certain it is that his treachery, next, was of a very wanton description. It was not as though he had been influenced by the prospect of making any great gain by his baseness. Merely, it is said, the price of a slave (see also Zechariah 11:13)—a sum about large enough to purchase a plot of ground of which all the value appears to have gone, and which only afterwards could be turned to use in the way of contempt (Matthew 27:7)—was all he looked for from his sin. Yet, last and worst, his resolve to commit it was of the most deliberate kind. This wretched bribe was his ruling thought—the thing he longed for—the thing he lived for—at that time. What a picture we have in Matthew 26:16 of one bent upon evil! Happen what may, and come what might, so far as he is concerned, this consummate wrong shall be done.
II. The obstacles overcome.—In the case of this sin, as of so many others, there was nothing less than a whole array and succession of influences, which ought to have told in the opposite line. The holiness of that special season was one thing of this kind. Was the Passover (Matthew 26:17), the great feast of the year, a time for such deeds? Was such a Passover, also, of all Passovers (see Matthew 26:18), a time for such deeds? How vividly, also, at that feast itself, were the claims of the intimacy to which the Saviour had admitted Judas brought home to his notice! He was at the same table—he was partaking of the same food—he was doing so at the same time—with his Benefactor (Matthew 26:23). What was he about to take with that same hand with which he had just taken that “sop”? Was there not something in such a thought which should have made him draw back? Also, at that supper, in its general sorrow, and in that which produced it, was there not much which ought to have been of an equally adversative kind? “Verily I say unto you,” the Saviour says to all, “that one of you shall betray Me.” The very suggestion is too much for every one else. Every one else is “exceeding sorrowful” at the very idea. Every one else can think of nothing worse as being possible for himself (Matthew 26:22). What an object-lesson, therefore, as to the enormity of his sin for Judas himself. In the intensity of their grief, he could see what they all thought of that which he was secretly thinking of doing. If they had all known it, and stood up and adjured him with tears not to think of doing so, they could not, virtually, have said any more. And, lastly, there was the special grief of the Master Himself. What a burst of sorrow was His! How significant its direction—over Judas himself! How equally significant the time of its expression—even when inexpressible suffering was approaching Himself! How beyond description its depth—“good were it for that man if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24)! Can any one imagine a stronger appeal, whether to love or to fear?
How exceedingly great, therefore, we see, in conclusion, is the deceitfulness of sin! What was it that this unhappy man promised himself by his sin? For which he condescended to such baseness? For which he gave up so much? For which he rushed over such obstacles? For which he resisted such appeals? For which he lost his all? What strikes one so much, on this side of the question, is the amazing folly of sin! How it blinds men to truth—to affection—to honour—to all but itself! See such passages as Matthew 13:22; Hebrews 3:13; Isaiah 44:20, etc., etc. Hence the wisdom of that prayer of the Psalmist’s (Psalms 119:37), and of the advice given us in Hebrews 12:2, to “look off unto Jesus.” The only safety against that which thus bewitches men in the wrong direction, is to fix the attention on that which fascinates in the right.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 26:14-16. Judas the covetous.—This incident reveals Judas Iscariot. If he had intended to compel Christ to commit Himself, and begin at once His kingdom, the very last thing he could have thought of would be making money for himself out of such a transaction. We should divest our minds altogether of the idea that the case of Judas was an exceptional one. We are warranted in looking at Judas exactly as we look at any other man. He had to be exposed to temptation, but was capable of resistance. He was liable to err, to falter, to fall, but there was provided for him adequate and opportune help. Notice:—
I. A strand of weakness in his natural disposition.—The question set before each one of us is this: What can you become under the burden of your particular bias and disability? Some men are inclined to pride, some to sensualities, some to drink, and some to covetousness. The strand of weakness in Judas was the “love of money.” We are as gardens filled with various seeds, of weeds and of flowers. We can nourish the weeds, if we please. But we can cut down their growths and pluck them out if we will. Judas nourished the weed.
II. A dividing line in his history.—And there is such a line in every personal history. A time when it is settled whether the evil or the good is to be the stronger force in the life. It may be difficult to fix such a time in the case of Judas, and yet many think they find it in connection with our Lord’s very spiritual address on the “Living Bread” (John 6.). At the close of that address, the Evangelist brings Judas in. “For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him.” That day “many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him”; and it is not unreasonable to assume that, though Judas did not then break away from the apostolic company, the conviction then came to him that all his hopes were doomed to disappointment, and Jesus was no such Messiah as he had desired. Let us not fail to observe that Christ’s efforts to spiritualise the thoughts and ideas of the Apostles might have influenced Judas, as they did influence the others. They would have done so, but for the self-seeking, and money-loving, which made him insincere, and turned him into the clay which the warm, life-giving sunshine can but harden.
III. The motives of the betrayal.—He was disappointed in the thing that had grown to be the ruling power in his nature—his love of money; and the disappointed man only too easily can become the revengeful man. Such a man only awakens to behold himself when the consequences of his ill-doing are fully before him. Then such a man may feel remorse—he will not rise to healthy repentance. Judas let money rule him, and money brought him down to a woe unspeakable.—Weekly Pulpit.
Matthew 26:17. Preparation for the Passover.—
1. It is commendable to remember God’s ordinances in due time, and to prepare for them.
2. Our Lord made Himself so poor that He had not a house of His own, albeit He was Owner of all the earth.
3. Our Lord subjected Himself unto the law, and did keep exactly both the moral and ceremonial law, that He might deliver us from the yoke of the one, and from the curse for breaking of the other
4. The terms of sacramental speech were well understood by Christ’s disciples, as to put the thing signified for the sign; by this phrase, “to eat the passover,” they mean “to eat the lamb,” the sacramental memorial of the angel’s passing over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt.—David Dickson.
Matthew 26:18-19. “A worthy man for so holy a service.”—
1. The Lord will not want friends, wheresoever He is. Here in Jerusalem He hath friends, as He had also in Bethany.
2. He hath such control of the spirits of men, as He can bow their will to do what service He pleaseth.
3. Christ hath taken on Him to be our Teacher and to Him only the dignity of Master is due; therefore He calleth Himself “the Master.”
4. It is of His own free choice that our Lord doth employ any man more than another.
5. The more near our time to depart this life doth draw, the more careful should we be to have all things done by us which should be done; therefore saith He, “My time is at hand, I will keep the Passover.”
6. It is the part of true disciples to follow Christ’s direction in all things, and, being clear in the command, to go about the obedience of it.—Ibid.
Matthew 26:20. Christ sitting with the Twelve.—
1. Neither is the sacrament the worse, nor are the communicants polluted, albeit an undiscovered hypocrite be in company with them at the Lord’s Table.
2. The Lord will not discover hypocrites till they by their own deed discover themselves, but will suffer them to lurk among the saints, till His own time come; as here He suffereth Judas to lurk and to eat the Passover.
3. Social sitting at table is a very fit posture for a religious feast.—Ibid.
The positive and the permanent.—God had commanded the attitude of standing in the reception of the paschal meal: the Jewish church having come to the land of promise, and being there at rest, reclined at the festival, and our Lord conformed to that practice—a proof that positive commands of a ceremonial kind, even of Divine origin, are not immutable, if they are not in order to a permanent end.—C. Wordsworth, D.D.
Matthew 26:21-22. Our Lord forewarning His disciples.—
1. It is possible that a man may come to the Lord’s Table the one day and betray Him shortly after.
2. The possibility that a communicant may become a traitor should put all men to search themselves.
3. Sincerity and charity will make men search and suspect themselves rather than another; as here the Apostles say not, “Is it Judas?” but “Is it I?”
4. The sincere man dares not trust the deceitfulness of his own heart, but bringeth it to the Searcher thereof, and relieth upon His testimony, as here the Apostles do, saying to Christ, “Is it I?”—David Dickson.
Matthew 26:22. “Is it I?”—Consider:—
I. The sorrow of the disciples.—
1. They were sorrowful that He, of all others, should be betrayed.
2. But the circumstance that affected them the most acutely was this: that their Master should be betrayed by one of them whom He was honouring by His presence and exalting by His fellowship.
II. The inquiry of the disciples.—
“Is it I?” Various feelings, no doubt, prompted this inquiry:—
1. Aversion to the crime itself.
2. Apprehension of the punishment due to such a crime.
3. Self-distrust.
4. Hypocrisy.—Judas, also, with the faithful ones, said, “Is it I?”—H. Ashbery.
Matthew 26:24. Judas Iscariot.—It has been observed that our Lord Himself says the sternest as well as the most tender things that are recorded in the gospel. It is the Most Merciful Himself who says. “It were good for that man if he had not been born.” As we think over the piercing words, we see how they close for ever the door of hope, since, if in some remotely distant age there were in store for Judas a restoration of his being to light and peace, beyond that restoration there would still be for him an eternity, and the balance of good would at once preponderate immeasurably on the side of having been born. It must be good for every human being to thank God for his creation, for the opportunity of knowing and loving the great Author of his existence, unless such love, such knowledge, has been made of his own act for ever impossible.
I. There are sayings about Judas which might seem to imply that his part in life was forced on him by some inexorable destiny.—St. John says that Jesus knew from the beginning who should betray Him. Our Lord asked the assembled Apostles, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” In His great intercession He addresses the Father, “Them that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost save the son of perdition.” And at the election of Matthias St. Peter points to the destiny of Judas as marked out in prophecy—“His bishopric let another take”—and he speaks of Judas as having gone to his own place. This and other language of the kind has been understood to represent Judas as unable to avoid his part as betrayer, and the sympathy and compassion which are thus created for him is likely to blind us to a true view of his unhappy career. The truth is that at different times the Bible looks at human life from two very different—and, indeed, opposite—points of view. Sometimes it regards men as factors in the Divine plan for governing the world, for bringing about results determined in the Divine counsels. At other times it regards men as free agents, endowed with a choice between truth and error, between right and wrong, between a higher and a lower line of conduct; and then it enables us to trace the connection between the use each man makes of his opportunities and his final destiny. Both ways of looking at life are, of course, strictly accurate. It is no doubt difficult, if not impossible, with our present limited range of knowledge, to reconcile the Divine sovereignty in the moral world with the moral freedom of each individual man. Some of the great mistakes in theology are due to an impatience of this difficulty. If our ordL, looking down upon our life with His Divine intelligence, speaks of Judas once and again as an instrument who would contribute to the working out of the redemption of the world, the gospel history also supplies us with materials which go to show that Judas had his freedom of choice, his opportunities, his warnings, and that he became the betrayer because he chose to do so.
II. For Judas’ career illustrates, secondly, the power of a single passion to enwrap, enchain, possess, degrade, a man’s whole character.—Judas, we must suppose, had his good points, or he never would have become of his own act a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. But Judas had one vice or passion, the love of money, carried to a point which filled his thoughts and controlled the action of his will. Just as there are bodily diseases which, at first unobtrusive and unnoticed and capable of being extirpated, if not taken in time will spread and grow, until first one and then another limb or organ is weakened or infected by them, so that at the last the whole body is but a habitation for the disease which is hurrying it to the grave: so in the moral world one unresisted propensity to known wrong may in time acquire a tyrannical ascendency that will make almost any conceivable crime possible in order to gratify it.
III. The history of Judas shows us that great religious privileges do not of themselves secure men against utter spiritual ruin.—Religious privileges only do their intended work when they are responded to on our part by the dispositions which make the most of them, by sincerity of purpose, by a humble—that is to say, a true—estimate of self, by sorrow for past sin and by watchfulness over present conduct, by an especial care not to let any one passion acquire that preponderance and supreme place in the soul which may render all helps to holiness useless, which may forfeit all prospect of eternal peace. Judas lived in the closest intimacy with Jesus; but this intimate relation with Jesus did not save Judas from a crime compared with which that of the Jewish Rabbis, and the Roman soldiers, and Pontius Pilate, and the chief priests, and the scribes and Pharisees, was venial; it did not save him becoming the betrayer. Observe, too, in the betrayal of our Lord, the survival of religious habit when the convictions and the feelings which make religion real have passed away. Judas betrayed the Son of man with a kiss. The kiss was a customary expression of mingled affection and reverence on the part of the disciples when they met their Master. To suppose that Judas deliberately selected an action which was as remote as possible from his then true feelings is an unnecessary supposition. It is more true to human nature to suppose that he endeavoured to appease whatever there may have been in the way of lingering protest in his conscience by an act of formal reverence that was dictated to him by long habit, and that served to veil from himself the full enormity of his crime at the moment of his doing it.—Canon Liddon.
Matthew 26:25. Betraying Christ.—There are other ways of betraying the Lord than by selling Him for a definite sum of money, and by sealing the hateful bargain with the kiss of treachery. I shall speak of three ways of betraying Christ, to which we seem specially liable in our own day.
I. The betrayal on the side of the intellect.—The popular intellectual position of our day is one of antagonism to Christ. The men who profess to be the leaders of our thought are never tired of telling us that the story of Jesus is a myth, and that the life of Christ in us is the result of a delusion. I want you not to betray your Lord until you are sure that He is not your Lord. I want you not to betray Christ because men say that He is disproved, but look for yourselves whether He is disproved.
II. The betrayal through the sins of our own nature.—
1. Animal appetites.
2. Covetousness.—It sometimes calls itself thrift; it sometimes calls itself economy; sometimes it is even on the plea of benevolence.
3. Unbelief.
4. Want of truth.
III. The betrayal by silence.—We are tempted to betray our Lord by silence amongst His people, and in the world where His people are not. St. Chrysostom tells us of one of the early martyrs, St. Lucian, who was brought before the tribunal of the judge to be condemned to death, and the judge said to him, “What is your name?” and he answered, “I am a Christian.” “And what is your country?” and he answered, “I am a Christian.” “And what is your business?” and he answered, “I am a Christian.” And to every question of the judge he had but one answer: “I am a Christian.” The man’s life had got absorbed in his Redeemer. He had no family, no country, no trade, except to be Christ’s and to confess Christ before men. We want Christians of that sort in the present day.—R. F. Horton, M.A.