Failed Leadership

Setting and Overview
Since Matthew focuses more on Jesus’ teaching than the other Synoptics, it is significant when we come to sections where he is largely silent. At the end of chapter 26 we saw how there was a progression through the three scenes where we hear less and less from Jesus, until in the last the only way that we hear his words are by way of Peter’s memory. In this section we will hear nothing from Jesus and see him referred to only a couple times in passing. Instead, Matthew turns his attention to the priests and to Judas, and tells us about an interaction that none of the other Gospel writers do. We see few positive actions in this section, and no positive characters, and yet we will again be reminded of God’s sovereignty throughout, meaning that not only is this passage very useful for our teaching, reproof, and correction, but that it should also leaving us rejoicing in a perfect God.
Exposition
In Chapter 26, we say the Sanhedrin find Jesus guilty, but that was not their final goal. They still were seeking to have him put to death, which required the Romans to see such an action as being in their best interested. This leads to more early morning plotting, before Jesus is passed on to Pilate, the Roman governor over Judea and Samaria who will be responsible for that decision.
Before Matthew picks that storyline back up in verse 11, he first turns to tell us what happened with Judas after the arrest. Apparently Judas had either not intended for Jesus to be condemned by the Sanhedrin, or hadn’t really considered the results of his betrayal. In either case, he regrets what he has done after seeing that Jesus has been betrayed, and goes to the chief priests to confess and try to return the money. Although the chief priests are both his co-conspirators and responsible for being providing spiritual leadership to the Jewish people, they push Judas away and refuse to help him, demonstrating virtually the opposite of what is expected of spiritual leaders (I Peter 5:2-3.) Although Judas regret was sincere, it does not reach the point of repentance (II Corinthians 7:10-12) and so Judas finds himself unable to deal with the results of his sin. His desperate hurling of the money and suicide reveal his true spiritual state (Matthew 26:24.) He has failed as Peter did, but in the aftermath of their failings, the difference in their spiritual state is revealed.
Matthew then turns his attention back to the chief priests. Despite the brazenness of their treatment of Jesus and their coldness toward Judas, they finally find a line that they won’t cross in receiving the money back from Judas. Because they see it as blood money, they cannot put it back in the treasury (Deuteronomy 23:18) and so they buy a field with burial money. Matthew then reveals that this is in fulfillment of what was prophesied by Jeremiah, but then provides a quote primarily from Zechariah 11:12-13. In doing so he follows the tradition of only crediting the more prominent prophet when two prophesies are fulfilled in one event. Here he is showing that like in Zechariah 11, God has sent a righteous shepherd to His people who are enslaved, yet the people have rejected the shepherd and valued the shepherd at the price of a slave (30 silver pieces) and that price was then hurled back into the temple. In Matthew, the priests use that money to buy a field, and like Jeremiah 19, that field will be filled with dead bodies and will ultimately serve as a condemnation of the religious leaders who have turned away from devotion to God and cause the defilement of the people.

Examination and Application
This is another very somber reality on which Matthew ends this section as we see the spiritual darkness of the Jewish leadership and the result of their failures. Yet once again Matthew tells us in verse 9, this happened to fulfill what was spoken. All of this was foreseen and ordained and part of God’s perfect plan to redeem humanity. This does not make our actions irrelevant or reduce the consequences of our sin (Matthew 26:24.) This does, however, mean that we can have confidence in God’s providence. Satan can tempt, and people can succumb to those temptations, but the plotting of Satan and failures of man do nothing to thwart the plan of a perfect, holy, loving God who works through those very actions to provide a sacrifice that can cover the sins of even the worst sinner who will truly repent and come to Jesus as their Lord and Savior and enter into abundant life (Acts 2:22-24, 37-39.)