So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver
The goodly price of Jesus
Satan’s dealings with the human family may be truthfully described as one gigantic system of bribery and corruption.
He has bribes of all sorts, and of different kinds and characters, and he knows how to apply them. He takes care to suit his bribe to the person who is being bribed. With some of us wealth is no particular object. But even while we spurn that bribe we are open to others. Before one man Satan puts the possibility of revelling in pleasure, before another a dream of ambition, before another literary distinction, before another domestic happiness. This system of bribery and corruption was fully shown when Satan entered the lists against the Saviour of the world. When the Son of God, made man, stood before the tempter in the wilderness, it was after this fashion that he dared to proceed. On that occasion Satan presented to the view of our blessed Master the very highest bribe that was ever offered. Of all the assaults which he made on our blessed Lord, this seems to have been the least successful. On other occasions he was very subtle; he approached our Lord very cautiously, but he made no headway; on each occasion he was met with wisdom and firmness. Satan is very frugal with his bribes. What is all his bribery and corruption for? How comes it to pass that Satan thus exerts his malignant skill in endeavouring to gain an influence over us? Satan’s prime object is, to carry out his rebellious purposes in the very face of the everlasting purposes of Jehovah. We, Christians, believe that in the end God will manifest His own wisdom by triumphing completely over Satan’s malignant skill, but that for the time being appearances are otherwise. There is no class of persons in human history for whom we feel a greater contempt than for traitors. We all despise a traitor. Who is there that can have any respect for a man like Judas Iscariot? And yet the sin that Judas committed is the sin that is being committed by the slaves of Satan still. We have not, indeed, the power of doing what Judas did. But as it is possible for us to “crucify” our Lord afresh, so it is possible to betray Him afresh into the hands of His enemies. How can this be done? This nature of ours, what is it? It is a citadel of the living God; it should be an abode of the Eternal Spirit. Every one of you belongs to God. If we refuse to recognise His right it is simply because we are already in our own hearts traitors against His love. The Lord is aware of his enticements. So He says to us: “If it seem good unto you, give Me My price.” If you are going to barter My rights for that which Satan offers you; if you are going to play the part of a base and perfidious traitor, make up your mind what your bargain is to be; look your own act in the face. If men and women were to sit down and ask themselves the question: “What price have I accepted for Jesus; for how great a consideration have I agreed with Satan to make over my soul to his influences, and to live the life that he would have me lead?” they would soon repent of their bribe. Little do you think that when you are selling the rights of Jesus you are actually selling your own interests. The man that sells Jesus sells his own soul, and there is no man that makes so bad a bargain as the man who accepts the devil’s bribes for the betrayal of Jesus. Look at this miserable man Judas. Can you fancy how he crept down that dark street? He felt already as if he were standing on the very verge of hell. The bargain was struck. And what a bargain it was! It did not seem much to get for Jesus--thirty pieces of silver. Then the end for Judas. It is the way the devil’s bribe will always end. He makes you fair promises; he takes you by the hand; he pleads with you; he lays all tempting things before you; but behind them all he has got the hangman’s rope ready, and the scaffold is prepared, and the awful moment of doom is drawing nearer and nearer. By and by come the agonies of remorse, the terrors of despair, and the awful horrors of a lost eternity. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
A model spiritual teacher
Why these words should have been referred to by Matthew, and applied to Christ and Judas, I cannot explain. They may fairly be employed to illustrate a model spiritual teacher in relation to secular acknowledgments of His teachings.
I. He leaves the secular acknowledgment to the free choice of those to whom His services have been rendered. “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give Me My price; and if not, forbear.” He does not exact anything, nor does he even suggest any amount.
II. His spiritual services are sometimes shamefully underrated. “So they weighed for My price thirty pieces of silver.” Thirty shekels. An amount in our money of about £3, 2s. 6d. This was the price they put on His services, just the price paid to a bond servant (Exodus 31:1-18).
1. Do not determine the real worth of a spiritual teacher by the amount of his stipend.
2. Deplore the inappreciativeness of the world of the highest services.
III. His independent soul repudiates inadequate secular acknowledgments, “And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and east them to the potter in the house of the Lord.” He felt the insult of being offered such a miserable sum. “Cut it unto the potter,” a proverbial expression, meaning, throw it to the temple potter. “The most suitable person to whom to cast the despicable sum, plying the trade, as he did, in the polluted valley of Hinnom, because it furnished him with the most suitable clay.” A true teacher would starve rather than accept such a miserable acknowledgment for his services. Your money perish with you! (Homilist.)
Mean treatment of an old prophet by his people
Here is an old Jewish prophet honourably putting himself in the hands of his congregation, who is dismissing himself with thirty pieces of silver.
I. An old prophet’s manly offer to his congregation. If you think good, give me my price. If you are weary of me, pay me off and discharge me. If you be willing to continue me longer in your service, I will continue; or turn me off without wages--I am content. His spirit is
(1) pathetic,
(2) submissive,
(3) magnanimous.
II. The Church’s miserable acceptance of his offer. “So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” They accepted the offer--
1. Immediately. They took no time for consideration. The money was ready for dismissal.
2. Despicably. Thirty shekels.
3. Dishonourably. Dismissing an old pastor with such a paltry sum. Parting with the man of God with a sham testimonial. An old prophet, after a long service of usefulness, cast upon the world with thirty pieces of silver.
4. Studiously mean. “They weighed thirty pieces of silver.” They shamefully put the lowest possible value on his ministry. See the extreme want of appreciation of good pastoral service. Zechariah’s ministry was Divine. What wretchedness of dealing with the prophetic shepherd of Israel. Salary is no test of a good ministry. Some of the best are badly paid: The geniuses are frequently unworthily recognised by their congregations. Jonathan Edwards was too poor to get paper to pen down his superhuman thoughts in the ministry.
III. The prophet’s manly disdain of his people’s meanness. “And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter,” etc. The act was--
1. Divine. “And the Lord said unto me.”
2. Manfully done.
3. A proof of their meanness.
IV. An old prophet robbed of his just claim.
1. Scriptural claim. “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth the corn.”
2. Social. For the “workman is worthy of his hire.”
3. Equitable. Every class of, people have power to claim their due, why not the ministry?
4. Divine. “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel.” “Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? And who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit,” etc. It is nothing but right for the ministry to get and have their due, for the credit of the Church and the good of their successors. Honesty is virtue everywhere. Conclusion--God frequently punishes publicly mean churches by presenting them with shepherds of extreme barbarity and cruelty. Meanness will be punished. (J. Morlais Jones.)
The price of our redemption
The exact agreement of this prophecy with the event it predicts would be sufficient to render this chapter more than ordinarily interesting. But it has a still greater claim on our regard, since it contains the passage which I have chosen as the subject of this discourse, than which no prophecy is more clear, no prediction more close and circumstantial. To whichever prophet or to what particular book the passage before us may be attributed, its circumstantial and prophetic description of an extraordinary event connected with man’s redemption cannot be denied. How trifling was the sum for which Judas sold his immortal soul. What could be his motive we at this distant hour can scarcely conceive. It has been said to have been avarice. But the sum of two or three pounds is surely too small a temptation even for the most covetous of mankind to betray and deliver to certain death his kindest friend and benefactor. The Gospel expressly tells us the crime originated at the instigation of Satan. Man’s salvation was bought with a price. What that price was, let the service of the Church at this season describe. Not even for a moment can a sincere disciple of Christ forget the words of the Apostle: “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (John Nance, D. D.)