Guilt and Remorse
Matthew 27:1-10
Guilt has plagued the human race since the fall in the Garden of Eden, and it will continue until the grand consummation of this earthly existence. Adam and Eve felt the pain of guilt after eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They demonstrated it by trying to hide their nakedness from each other by the covering of fig leaves, and ultimately, by trying to hide from God as He came to visit them in the Garden. Rather than acknowledge their guilt or appeal to God for mercy, they placed blame elsewhere for their sin. The pattern has repeated itself in countless human tragedies over the millennia.
All of us have felt the sting of our conscience when we know we have done wrong, hurt someone, or sinned against God. People respond to guilt in many ways. Some assuage their guilt by shifting the blame to other people or even to God. Others drown their guilt by indulging in even more sin. Some pursue a religious experience to alleviate guilt. Some try to atone for their guilt through good deeds. A few go to the extreme of suicide.
And some, by the grace of God, discover that Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, has taken our guilt upon Himself, and borne the judgment of God that we deserve, so that we might exchange our guilt for His joy through repentance and faith in Christ. Guilt destroys us until we leave it at the cross. In spite of God’s provision for our guilt through Christ, most people refuse the way of the cross and choose to deal with guilt in their own way.
We see this clearly in the story of the end of Judas Iscariot in Matthew 27. For us who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 27 literally recounts the crucial event on which our salvation is based—the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 26, we saw Jesus eat His last Passover with His disciples and institute the Lord’s Supper. We saw Him predict that one of His disciples would betray Him, all of them would stumble, and Peter would deny Him three times. We saw Jesus agonize in prayer as He determined to obey the Father’s will in fulfillment of scripture. We saw Jesus willingly submit Himself to be arrested, falsely accused, wrongfully convicted, and brutally mocked.
Throughout that dreadful Thursday night and into Friday morning, Matthew has presented Christ’s trials and sufferings in a series of contrasts. We have seen the contrast of Jesus’ submission, silence, and sinlessness against the pride, perjury, and perversion of the chief priests and scribes. We have seen Jesus’ trustworthiness against the treachery of Judas, His betrayer. And we have seen Jesus’ faithfulness against the failures of Peter and the other disciples.
What Matthew wants us to see in all of this is the splendor of the Lord Jesus Christ against the sinfulness of fallen mankind. Matthew wants us exalt Jesus Christ as Savior, Lord, and King even through the appalling events of His trial and death.
Now, in the introductory verses to this great chapter of the crucifixion, Matthew gives us another contrast. In the middle of Jesus’ trial, as He is condemned by the Jewish council and handed over Pilate, the Roman governor, Matthew includes the story of the tragic end of Judas the betrayer. It is not an uplifting story. But as always in the Gospels, the story is not just about Judas, it is about Jesus Christ. Against the backdrop of Judas’ guilt, remorse, and suicide, we see Jesus’ innocence, mankind’s iniquity, and God’s sovereign intention. This passage shows us why the cross was necessary, why it is relevant for us today, and why it is urgent that we respond to the Savior in repentance and faith. It’s the only way to remove our guilt.
As we walk through these verses, may the Holy Spirit impress on us the innocence of our Savior, the guilt of our iniquity, and God’s sovereign intention for our salvation.
First, we see …
1. Jesus’ Condemnation (Matt. 26:1-2)
Matthew writes, “When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.” (Matt. 27:1).
The chief priests and elders had already decided that Jesus must be killed before Judas betrayed Him, and they arrested Him and put Him through the sham trial at the palace of Caiaphas (Matt. 26:4). This Friday morning meeting of the whole Sanhedrin (Mark 15:1) was the formal hearing when they pronounced their official death sentence against Jesus.
Then Matthew 27:2 tells us, “And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.” The Jews would have to make their death penalty case to the Roman governor because their Roman occupiers had taken away from them the power to execute criminals (John 18:31). Matthew will resume Jesus’ trial before Pilate in Matthew 27:11, but first, Matthew cuts away to finish the story of Judas, the betrayer.
And here, we see …
2. Judas’ Regret (Matt. 26:3-5)
After betraying Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas must have followed along with the arresting mob back to Caiaphas’ palace to see what happened to Jesus. So, in Matthew 27:3, he tells us that sometime after Jesus was condemned, beaten, and sent to Pilate, “Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.” Even Judas can see how wrong this all is.
Judas had gladly taken the thirty pieces of silver from them to betray Jesus. He committed a great sin. Now, seeing the consequences of his betrayal, he was remorseful. The word “remorseful” is different from the New Testament word for repentance. Repentance is a sorrow for sin in the heart that leads to a change of mind and action. Remorse is regret at being caught or regret for the consequences of sin, but not true repentance from sin.
Judas experienced what is called, “Worldly Sorrow.” It is a sorrow that feels the pain of sin. It is a sorrow that confesses the guilt of sin. It is a sorrow that makes efforts to remove the consequences of sin. But, in the end, it’s a sorrow that finds no comfort. Because, it is a sorrow that falls short of repentance and never knows the blessing of forgiveness, where true comfort comes from.
Paul wrote about this kind of sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7. Earlier, Paul had written to these Corinthians a letter rebuking them for their tolerance of sinful behavior in the church. His letter pierced them to the heart and convicted them of sin and caused them to mourn. When Paul received news back from the Corinthians that his letter had caused them much grief and turmoil, he wrote back in 2 Corinthians 7,
8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. (2 Cor. 7:8-10).
The kind of sorrow for sin that God gives, and that pleases Him, is one that leads to “repentance”. And such repentance, in turn, leads to salvation—which no one will regret. But mere remorse, regret, or “worldly sorrow” just leads to despair and death.
I believe that this was the case with Judas. It wasn’t his own sin that led him to sorrow. It was the consequences of his sin that produced his remorse, and not the sin itself. Judas apparently felt no remorse when he agreed to take the silver coins to betray the Lord. He felt no remorse when he led the mob to Gethsemane and betrayed Jesus with a kiss. It was only when Judas saw that Jesus was condemned to death that he felt the sting of his conscience. Then he felt remorse.
Notice what he says when he brought back the thirty pieces of silver: “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” (Matt. 27:4). Judas confessed that he had sinned. And he confessed that Jesus was innocent. Both of these things were true and right. They are things he should have said and did. But confession of sin does not always mean repentance. It may only mean that the sinner has been cornered and has no other option, but to admit the truth. When a criminal stands before the judge with the evidence stacked against him and he is asked how he pleads, the criminal can easily say, “guilty” and have intention of changing his ways at all. In a similar way, a sinner can confess his sins, but have no heart of repentance. Because, as Calvin writes, “True repentance is displeasure at sin, arising out of fear and reverence for God, and producing, at the same time, a love and desire of righteousness.”[1]
Those who have worldly sorrow may feel bad about what they have done. They may confess that what they did was wrong. They may seek to make restitution for the wrong like Judas did in returning the thirty silver coins. But all of this may fall short of true repentance. In the case of Judas, he did all of these things. Judas was guilty, and he finally felt his guilt. His feelings have changed about what he did, but his heart has not. He tried to undo the damage, but he failed to do the most important thing: repent and turn to Jesus for salvation.
And notice how the chief priests and elders respond to Judas when he declared that Jesus was innocent. They said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” (Matt. 27:4). “But their own words condemn them, for it should have been something to them. Judas has betrayed innocent blood; they have condemned innocent blood.”[2] They didn’t say, “Oh; but you’re wrong, Judas! He’s not innocent at all! We have found Him guilty blasphemy against God!” In fact, their own behavior testified to the truth of what Judas said, because even they were unable to find any consistent witnesses against Him. Later, even Pilate will testify to the truth of what Judas said, washing his hands and saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person” (Matt. 26:24). Judas’ guilt and remorse highlights Jesus’ innocence and righteousness.
And so, Judas, consumed by his guilt, hangs himself in despair. Matthew 27:5 says, “Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.” Since Jesus is being led to his death, this silver becomes blood money and thus burns his hands with blood guilt.[3] The irony here is that Judas’ betrayal sent Jesus to His death which alone could pay for Judas’ sin. But Judas refused to repent and believe, so instead of Jesus dying for his sin, Judas dies in his own sins. The scripture is true. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), and without Jesus you will indeed die in your sins (John 8:24).
But Judas is not the only guilty one in this account. Next we see…
3. The Chief Priests’ Guilt (Matt. 26:6-8)
Unlike Judas who was filled with remorse for his sin, the chief priests are determined to fill up the guilt of their own sin. Notice Matthew 27:6-8,
6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. (Matt. 27:6-8).
The chief priests pick up the money Judas threw into the temple and discuss what to do with it. They say, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” Notice, they know it’s blood money. That was their name for it. But it had been their money in the first place! They themselves paid it out for Jesus’ blood! They know it’s money that was used to betray an innocent man to death. They know that they have sent Jesus away to Pilate under false pretenses. But all they can think about is what they should do with the money!
They aren’t concerned about the sinful act of murderous betrayal they paid for with that money, but they were very concerned about keeping the temple clean from blood money. The chief priests remain preoccupied with the letter of the law while oblivious to its spirit.[4] They were more careful about making sure that murder-money wasn’t put into the temple, than they were about the murder itself! What an example of straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:24)! These chief priests and elders of the people were dreadfully covered-over with the guilt of this sin, and yet, they wouldn’t even let it bother them!
The money was unclean because it was blood money. Since it’s against their law to put the blood money into the treasury, they decide to buy a field with it as a graveyard for burying foreigners. Graveyards were considered unclean and so were foreigners. And so, the priests use unclean money to buy an unclean place for unclean people to be buried.[5]
In Acts 1, Luke reports that Judas bought this field because it was bought by the chief priests and elders with the money he threw into the temple. After it was purchased, Judas apparently hung himself somewhere above it; and when the rope or branch broke, he fell upon it. And its name, “the Field of Blood,” gained a double significance—both because of the blood-money that was used to purchase it, and because of the bloody event that occurred on it.
Strange isn’t it that one man could feel remorse for his actions and even openly admit how wrong he was, and still he found no relief from his guilt? And maybe stranger still are those that were equally guilty, if not more so, for the most wicked act of humanity, and they made themselves feel better because they observed some trivial matter about the temple treasury while killing the Son of God. One found no relief from guilt and took his life. The others attempted to cover up their guilt by doing a charitable act.
But there is only one way to truly deal with guilt. And that is for the root of it, your sins, to be taken away by the One Judas betrayed and the council condemned-Jesus Christ. God has made a way for us so that we do not have to resort to self-destruction or self-deceit when dealing with guilt. We go to the cross and find it empty, Jesus Christ having already taken away our guilt and risen from the dead, so that guilty sinners might have hope now and forever.
Finally we see in this passage…
4. The Scriptures’ Fulfillment (Matt. 26:9-10)
Matthew says that the purchase of this field with the thirty pieces of silver is the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promise in the Old Testament:
9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me” (Matt. 27:9-10).
Matthew quotes from a combination of passages found in the Old Testament books of Zechariah and Jeremiah that together specify: 1) the thirty coins of silver, 2) that this money was the price set for God’s servant, 3) that the money would be thrown into the temple, 4) that the money would be associated with a potter, and 5) that the money would be used to buy a field (Zechariah 11:12-13, Jeremiah 19:1-13, 32:6-9).
In Zechariah 11, the payment of thirty pieces of silver was made in order to get rid of Israel’s Shepherd. Zechariah writes;
Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter (Zechariah 11:12-13).
Thirty pieces of silver isn’t much. To call it “that princely price” was to speak of it sarcastically. In Exodus 21:32, thirty pieces of silver was the price of a slave.
That same price was paid to get rid of Jesus who is Israel’s Shepherd. At such a miserable price the Jews valued Jesus and gladly paid it to get rid of Him.[6] So; in picking up this money from the temple, and using it to buy the potter’s field, the chief priests and elders were fulfilling a remarkable prophecy concerning Jesus—the Shepherd whom the people of Israel despised and rejected. Carson comments,
Matthew sees in Jeremiah 19 and Zechariah 11 not merely a number of verbal and thematic parallels to Jesus’ betrayal but a pattern of apostasy and rejection that must find its ultimate fulfillment in the rejection of Jesus, who was cheaply valued, rejected by the Jews, and whose betrayal money was put to a purpose that pointed to the destruction of the nation (see on 15:7–9; 21:42).[7]
Once again, Matthew reminds us that no element of Jesus’ final hours was accidental. Even minor details such as the use of the blood money find their place in God’s plan to redeem His people. All of this happened in fulfillment of the intentional plan of our sovereign heavenly Father. Matthew will never let us forget that all things happen according to the Lord’s plan of redemption.[8]
Matthew has clearly shown us in this passage the solution for our guilt—the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. He has the power to remove our sin and guilt because He is the sinless Son of God. His blood was innocent. He bore no sins of His own—and thus was qualified to bear the sins of mankind on Himself.
But just as Jesus was absolutely innocent, we are absolutely guilty before God because of our own sin. Judas and the chief priests are not the only guilty sinners. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3.23) and “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
The cross of Jesus was not some accident of circumstance. It was the accomplishment of the purpose of a sovereign God—decreed in love before we were ever brought into existence—to rescue us from sin and death, and to restore us to God Himself in holiness. As the Bible tells us, we were redeemed,
. . . with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through faith in Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:19-21).
Jesus died to take the penalty of your sins for you. So, don’t be like the chief priests and ignore your sin. Don’t be like Judas and die in your sin. Come to Jesus who shed His innocent blood for you. Turn from your sin, put your faith in Christ and live.
[1] John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, 3:269. Quoted by Jacob Gerber, https://harvestpca.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Matthew-271-10.pdf.
[2] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 561.
[3] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 1078–1079.
[4] Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 408.
[5] Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 408.
[6] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 1083.
[7] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 566.
[8] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew & 2, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008), 476.
