In Seminary I did temp work during the summer to help the checkbook balance. One memorable job was working at Pepsi. My initiation to this job came when I was handed a shovel and told to remove 20 pallates of spilled soda. I then graduated to painting caution markers around the loading dock, enjoying the warmth of the 107 degree Carolina sun. Toward the end of the summer I finally landed what I thought would be a comfy job, janitorial work in the corporate office. Air conditioning never felt so good. But I quickly learned that even with that cushy job came an unpleasant task. I had to make the trash drive to the Columbia land fill. What at first I thought would be a fun adventure, soon became an olfactory ordeal. I never knew garbage would smell so bad. As far as the eye could see, there were mountains of trash fermenting in the humid Carolina summer. Large earth-moving equipment busily buried all the debris. I had driven by this area before, but from the road it was protected by a fence and the artificial hills of refuse were covered by manicured grass. It was managed filth, organized waste. The job of the landfill was to take garbage and bury it, cover it, hide it, so that it would be tolerable to those who produced it. Just as it is the job of the landfill to hide trash, so many of us believe it is our duty to cover up the mess we’ve created. When confronted by chaotic choices or delinquent decisions, we employ the landfill method. We bury our sins, removing them from sight, guarding them with fences. Yet the problems remain. The trouble is the garbage in our lives created by our own selfishness, sensuality, and sinfulness can be covered only so long. With the passing of time, the stench becomes unbearable, like the elaborate golf course built on top of a landfill. Everything was fine until one day a golfer noticed some trash poking up through the fairway. Over the next few weeks, numerous golfers reported seeing large pieces of metal and plastic garbage that had begun to surface. Before long, the pleasure of golfing had been overcome by the odor and unsightliness of the reappearing rubbish. In our passage this morning, Matthew 27:1-10, we see four common methods to try to correct the wrongs we do, four methods that will always fail. The methods described here are in response to the greatest wrong ever done: the betrayal and trial of Jesus Christ.
After the Sanhedrin’s midnight kangaroo court, the leaders haul Jesus to Pilate’s chamber to plead the death penalty. As it is now clear that Jesus will die, Judas has second thoughts. It seems odd Judas would get a guilty conscience at this point. His reasons for betraying Jesus may have been the hope that Jesus would at last initiate a revolt against the corrupt government which Judas has longed for. If this were to happen, Christ would have the honor, the Jews the shame and he the money, and no harm done. But it was now apparent this would not happen. Let’s take a look at how Judas and the Jewish leaders try to deal with the garbage in their lives. DO THE RIGHT THING. Judas seems to have a change of heart (verses 3-4). If we were to grade his response here, we may give him a standing ovation. He tries to set the record straight, undo the wrong he has done. In fact, he seems to meet the requirements we sometimes think are necessary for God to look the other way. He expressed contrition, confessed his sin and then made satisfaction by returning the blood money. The change of mind is striking. Peter, when he knew he has sinned, ran from those to whom he lied. Judas confronts the leaders, the ones who have just condemned Jesus to death. His remorse is not superficial, it is gutsy. He also sought to make restitution. For a man who loved money like Judas, to return it meant something. This is no minor twang of guilt. Notice the confession he makes.: “I have sinned for I have betrayed innocent blood.” I have sinned: no excuses given; he doesn’t claim an error in judgment or a lapse in morals. He doesn’t blame the leaders, saying, “You put me up to it.” He is clear in how he sinned; he betrayed innocent blood. For Judas to state what should’ve been so clear in the midnight proceedings, that Jesus was innocent and that he set him up, would have meant the death penalty for him, as a false witness. If you compare Judas and Peter, Judas looks pretty good here. He betrayed Jesus only once and then immediately regretted his action. He then boldly confronted the powerful, corrupt officials and proclaimed Jesus’s innocence, throwing their bribe money back at their feet for good measure. Peter, the other fallen disciple, betrayed Jesus on three separate occasions. He hid in abject fear of the officials and then ran off seeking seclusion. But it's Judas whose name is synonymous with all that is contemptible, corrupt and deceitful in human nature. (How many kids do you know named Judas?) That second disciple, Peter, is honored as the father of the church and is designated a "saint. " (How many kids do you know named Peter?) But is this repentance? The first clue we have is in the word used to describe his response: “he was seized with remorse.” That word is not quite repentance. Repentance (metanoeo) means a change of mind. Remorse (metamelomai) focuses more on a change of feelings. For Judas this change of feelings was pronounced, agonizing. But it was only at that level. What Judas is experiencing is not really contrition, but attrition. Attrition involves self-reproach, depression, the hurting conscience, guilty feeling, loneliness, a fear of punishment, self-pity, and so on. But contrition involves our minds, emotions and will. We must know that sin is wrong and desire to change. The second is our emotions. We must have a profound hatred for sin because it offends God. The third is our will. We must decide to turn from sin and turn to God in faith. True repentance involves every aspect of our being. Secondly, what he felt was not repentance is because repentance is Godward, remorse is inward. Repentance is not just feeling miserable about something, nor is it just trying to do the right thing. The remorse Judas felt was a self-centered guilt. He felt bad that he did wrong. God does not enter the picture. The guilt he feels is about himself. A visitor at a zoo noticed an attendant crying quietly in a corner. The visitor asked another attendant what the man was crying about and was told that one of the elephants had died. Touched by this, the visitor then asked, "I assume he must have been particularly fond of that elephant?" And the reply came back, "No, it's not that. He's crying because he's the one who has to dig the grave." What makes you do the right thing? For Judas, the garbage of his own heart had crept out. In vile disgust he wanted to rid himself of it by covering it up by means of rectifying his wrong. Is that the motivation for wrongs we've done? Do we live a moral life out of fear for the pain sin would cause us - or God? If God is not the ultimate motivation in your moral choices, if you do the right thing so that the little voice in your head will leave you alone, you are making the same choice as Judas. DENY RESPONSIBILITY. As the old axiom goes: “When all else fails - blame someone else.” This tactic is as old as Adam when we shift the responsibility to another. That is exactly what the leaders did when confronted by Judas. He told them he had betrayed innocent blood; they simply responded: “And your point is?” Judas went to the leaders, his spiritual elders for absolution, but they gave him nothing. They were glad to make use of Judas in the sin. When he offered to betray Jesus, they did not push him away. But when he realized that what he did was wrong, when his guilty conscience bothered him, then they kept their distance. Perhaps they were afraid they would be infected by the same remorse Judas felt. They didn’t want to be bothered by such uncomfortable emotions. What do they have to do with this? Everything. They have the power to reconvene the court. Judas could give fresh testimony. They could allow Judas to give a sin offering. But their answer was simple and direct: “YOU handle it!” This is exactly what the despairing sinner does not need to hear. This it-is-all-up-to-you, your-responsibility teaching irresponsibly misdirects the person under a load of guilt. Broken and sinful people need first the words of divine judgment on sin and immediately thereafter of divine mercy on the repentant sinner. Only THEN can you handle it. Without God and His grace, in our weakness and sinfulness, we cannot handle our sin. The solution to guilt and sin resides not in the free will decision to remove it, to just think properly, to get your orders fixed up right. Instead, of all people, the chief priests and elders should have known better. Their very existence was predicated on pointing troubled sinners to a God who removes guilt. The little kid who doesn’t want to be told to obey, clasps his hands over his ears and yells: “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you.” When we deny our culpability in sin, when we shift the blame on another, the stench of the garbage still fills the air. Let’s skip over for now Judas’s response and continue with the other option the leaders found when trying to cover up their sin. DO GOOD TO EASE GUILTY CONSCIENCE. Judas came to them to find the answer to his guilt and all they could do was shift the blame. Since they would not take back the blood money willingly, Judas hurls the coins into the temple. The priests do not leave the money lying around; they pick it up, but notice what they say: “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” Morals kick in at weird times, to ease conscience over wrong done. While they had no pangs of guilt over manipulating the murder of an innocent man, their penchant for the minutiae of Scripture is amazing. They took money out of the treasury to bribe a traitor but would not allow it back in. Like philanthropists engaging in immorality while giving generously to soothe their aching scruples, they thought the money should relieve the plight of the poor. But where they sent the money only served to demonstrate their own sinfulness. What about the proverbial flowers after a fight but saying nothing about the wrong done? We are good at covering up without admitting wrong. Money obtained by sinful means could not be put in the temple, the rabbis said. But it could be used to help others. This money was used to buy a junkyard of clay pots so that proselytes who died in Jerusalem could be buried. Matthew then explains that all this took place to fulfill prophecy. The passage is difficult because you can read all through Jeremiah and not find this verse. You will find it, however, in Zechariah. What Matthew does is not uncommon. He brings two passages together but attributes it to the one. In Jeremiah 19 God tells the prophet to buy a clay jar from the potter and take some of the elders and priests outside the gate to the Valley of Ben Hinnom. There he will warn the leaders of the destruction of Jerusalem by smashing the jar. This valley is near the Potsherd Gate, which designates the same area of Jerusalem, the place where discarded pots are tossed. Both for Jeremiah as well as in Jesus’s day, the rulers have abandoned God for other gods and shed innocent blood (verse 4). In Zechariah 11:13 where the words Matthew’s quote is found, we’re told how the Lord’s shepherd is rejected by the people. The price for His life, to be rid of God’s shepherd, was that of a slave: 30 pieces of silver. In Zechariah, the money is also flung into the temple and given to the potter. Acts 1:18-19 explains further why the leaders purchased this plot of land, for it was there that Judas, in his final act of despair, killed himself. This brings us to the final means of covering sin - the great despair of any hope - suicide. DESPAIR OF ANY HOPE Judas thought that by doing the right thing he could undo the wrong he had done. He tried to correct his own sin, but only found the leaders denying any responsibility and refusing to help. Their only advice was for him to deal with his own problems. And so, Judas did. Judas, so overwhelmed with grief, suffocated by his own sin and not knowing how to get rid of the guilt, hanged himself. As we saw earlier, Judas had a sense of his sinfulness, but didn’t grasp the mercy of God, so he was crushed by the load of his own iniquity. In betraying Christ, he did not commit a sin that could not be forgiven, for his sin was no greater than that of Peter’s denial. What drove him to utter despair was that he would not look to Christ. He wanted to escape from the hell that was within him, but in so doing he leapt into a perpetual horror, an eternal despair. What Judas does is a continuation of the unbelief we saw earlier, taking matters into his own hands. Judas’s response is that of a desperate person who hears only the words of judgment then; instead of hearing words of pardon from the pastor, he hears only “You handle it.” The answer to the one who thinks suicide is the only answer must hear the antidote to that plague, that obedience to God is necessary, that God judges disobedience, and above all, God’s gift of grace found in forgiveness of those who repent of sin. This last equation must never be left out, otherwise, despair is the only option. This is often the passage from which people conclude that suicide is the unforgivable sin. I wish to tread cautiously for some here have lost loved ones to suicide. Others have attempted it or planned it out in their minds. There is a dual danger here. To say that to do this one may never be forgiven is to forget what grace is all about. We are saved not by our repentance, nor by our not committing specific sins, but by Christ’s atonement. Christ died for murders, including those who are His who commit self-murder. On the other hand we should not think too lightly on this issue, that it is really no big deal. Suicide may be indicative of one who places his trust not in God’s dark providence, but in his own hands. This is never an option. There are times when the weight of our is life far too much to endure. We can’t see any way out, but murder is never an answer to that darkness. When faced with those thoughts we must not follow Judas’s example and get the advice of wicked counselors who offer nothing but more self-reliance. What Judas did not hear was the gospel which Peter gained when he remembered the words of Jesus there in the courtyard. In sorrow, do not ignore the gospel, thinking you are in too desperate a condition for God’s love. There is a repentance which renews, but a remorse that will only ruin even more. In those times you must not keep the focus solely on the garbage that is within your heart, but must look to the goodness of God, how Christ’s grace triumphs in lives of wretched, filth-strewn people like Peter, like me, like you. Despair of your own ability, but trust in God’s grace. When the dark shadows of grief and despair block out the sun, when depression hangs about your neck so that you’re unable to think, it is then you need no further introspection to dwell on the mounds of waste which fill your own hearts: You need to look to Christ who took that load of filth on Himself. The difference between Peter’s plaintive cry and Judas’ desire to do the right thing is that Peter’s anguish longed for divine forgiveness, while Judas could only think of what he could do next. Both responses are out of anguish. Peter realized his own powerlessness to change while Judas tried a half dozen remedies. The distinction between Judas’s remorse and Peter’s repentance is best described in Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. In 7:10 he defines godly sorrow as bringing repentance which leads to salvation, leaving no regret. On the other hand worldly sorrow, or sorrow which has only oneself in view, remorse - that brings death. That worldly sorrow can be described as depression, inertia, irritability which results in laziness and bitterness. But instead the kind of sorrow that leads us to Christ produces (verse 11): earnestness, eagerness to clear yourself, indignation, alarm, longing, concern, readiness to see justice done. When the filth of David’s life was made clear to all Israel, David responded not by putting a favorable spin on misguided choices; he did not blame his wife’s coldness to him, or even promise to be more moral in the future. Instead, he wrote a very public confession admitting his sin, but also looking to God for Him to work in him. Psalm 51 is a great expression of how we are to respond to our sin. Not hide it, not deny it is there, not even to try to rid it ourselves, but ask God to create a clean heart in us. |