Hello everybody, and welcome in to episode 131 of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading Matthew 27 today and our focus is on His blood on us and on our children. We are a daily 10 minute podcast, where we will dig in to the truth of the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day and discussing it. Welcome to new listeners in Thanks for listening! Our goal is to encourage DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast Don’t forget about our web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more– Click here for our Bible 2021 reading plan\
In our long chapter today, we will see the ignominious end of Judas the betrayer, and the glorious apparent end of Jesus, the betrayed. We will see Pilate’s wife desperately try to convince her husband to have absolutely nothing to do with passing judgment on Jesus, and we will see Pilate lukewarmly attempting to get the crowd to decide to free Jesus, rather than kill Him. I find Pilate to be a very vanilla figure. Insightful, intelligent and somewhat discerning. Jesus perplexed him, but he knew enough to know that Jesus was utterly innocent, and not at all deserving of criminal charges. He was shrewd enough to know that the Jewish officials wanted Him killed out of jealousy, but ultimately, he lacked the courage to do anything about it – going along with the will of the crowd – even though he knew it was wrong. Pilate is ultimately weak. A person of power like so many people of power – he lacked the courage of his convictions, and led in whatever way the crowd thought best.
At one point, Pilate tries to get the crowd to ask for the release of Jesus, but they demand the release of a criminal called Barabbas instead. After this, Pilate asks what he should do with Jesus, and the crowd demands that He be crucified…when Pilate protests (mildly) the crowd shouts back one of the most ironic statements in history:
25 All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Matthew 27:25
We find that brutal, but, as pastor David Platt says, it’s not just this crowd that crucified Jesus:
But not just upon them, ladies and gentlemen. I hope we have seen in various questions that we have asked of ourselves that the scribes and Pharisees in this text are not as foreign to us as we might like to think. And so, as we come to the climax of these condemnations—this denouncement of scribes and Pharisees and crowds who murdered the Messiah—we come face-to-face with a frightening conclusion: We are them. We have hearts that would murder the Messiah. And to think anything different is to flatter ourselves in the same way these scribes and Pharisees did. The old Negro spiritual asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” And the answer is, “Yes, we were there.” Not as spectators, but as participants. Guilty participants, plotting, scheming, betraying, bargaining, and handing him over to be crucified. John Stott said, “Until you see the cross as that which is done by you, you will never appreciate that it is done for you.” The great Scottish hymnwriter Horatius Bonar wrote:
“Twas I that shed the sacred blood; I nailed him to the tree;
I crucified the Christ of God; I joined the mockery.
Of all that shouting multitude, I feel that I am one;
And in that din of voices rude I recognize my own.
Around the cross the throng I see, Mocking the Sufferer’s groan;
Yet still my voice it seems to be, As if I mocked alone.”
We have all rebelled against God, we have all turned from Him and from His Word, supremely revealed in His one and only Son, and no matter how sincere we are, no matter how hard we try, no matter what we do, we have hearts that warrant the wrath and condemnation of God.
David Platt, “The Danger of Damnation in Sincere Religion,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2012), 3523–3524.
They meant it in a cruel and bloodthirsty way that we might struggle to relate to, but the ultimate impact of the cross is that our sins our washed away, our salvation is secured, and the doors of Heaven are opened by His saving blood being applied to our heads and the heads of our children. What the crowds shouted for in brutality is the ultimate grace gift of God!
One question that came up during our family Bible reading tonight – how much is Judas’ 30 pieces of silver worth today? It turns out that is a complicated question, and it depends on what coin was used exactly – the Bible doesn’t say. There are 4 main possibilities, and their modern value in silver terms would be anywhere from around $100-440, just in terms of the value of silver as of today. However, that doesn’t tell the true story, since those 30 silver coins were used to buy a field, and you can hardly buy a field for $400 today. Each silver coin probably was worth four drachma, or 4 days wages – which means that the coins would be worth 120 days wages paid to a laborer. (They could also possibly be only worth 30 days wages – again, it depends on the coin) If we figure a $10/hour wage, roughly, that works out to around $2400-9600 dollars in today’s money in terms of buying power, which would be much more in line with what you could get a small field for in some places.
Bible Memory verses for the month of May: Matthew 28:18-20 18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
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