30 Pieces of silver!

GOSPEL Matthew 26:14–25

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The teacher says, My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.” The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover.

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.” Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”

Food for thought!

For three days we have been with Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus. Before we leave him, we ask, why did he do it? Why did Judas betray Jesus? Why would anyone in their right senses betray someone like Jesus? And if one decided to betray Jesus, that is, to give him away, how much would one exchange for Jesus?

What is 30 pieces of silver worth today? Well, the best was to look at it is to remember last Monday's gospel reading. In it, we read, that Mary brought her perfume, very expensive. Judas calculated it to cost 300 silver pieces. The same Judas valued Jesus to be worth 30 silver pieces. The perfume was 10x more expensive than Jesus, that is according to Judas! Judas lost all proportion of things.

How much money would you accept to deny Jesus? How much would it take for you to abandon Jesus, to never follow Jesus, to never read the Bible again, or to just say, "I'm no longer a follower of Christ"? 

As we condemn Judas, we do well to remember that there are millions and millions of former Christians out there, who gave up on Jesus, who gave Jesus in exchange of something else. All it took was getting a scholarship, or getting busy with studies, with work, with a job offer, with a family, or just getting busy with life. Now days, it is easy to trade Jesus for jogging on Sunday morning, or just for watching a movie instead of going to church. Trading off Jesus for something else is getting easier and more frequent than we may want to imagine. Jesus is getting cheaper and cheaper than 30 pieces of silver.

St. Paul intercede for us all, that we may recover the value of Jesus and say as you did one day: "I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ." (Phil. 3:7-8).