ACC ~ Matthew 27 v1 - 10

OVERVIEW:

Out of this day would emerge the overthrow of the temple and its altars, the surpassing of the Law and the Prophets, the undoing of the kingship and priesthood. Due to their persistent shouts, Pilate chose to pardon a man who was a murderer and demanded the crucifixion of the Savior of the world (LEO THE GREAT). They bound him with chains, but these fetters would be broken (ORIGEN, JEROME). The religious leaders make clear their complicity and guilt by buying the piece of land for burial (CHRYSOSTOM). The potter is the one who brought us to life with his own hands and who is refashioning us to glory through Christ. Christ’s blood purchased the field of the potter for us, travelers in this world (MAXIMUS OF TURIN). Having betrayed innocent blood, Judas hanged himself—a disgraceful death (CHRYSOSTOM). Although Judas repented his sin, he could not change its consequence (ORIGEN, JEROME).

27:1-2 | The Religious Leaders Confer

WHEN MORNING CAME

LEO THE GREAT: O religious leaders [of the Jews], this morning was far from your time of ascendency, as it might have seemed to you. Your sun was in fact beginning to set. The dawn you expected did not come. A night of blackest darkness was brooding over your spiteful hearts. Out of this morning would come the overthrow of the temple and its altars, the surpassing of the law and the prophets, the undoing of the kingship and priesthood, turning youth to continual lament. [1] For you set out that morning on a mad and bloody course. You offered up to die the Author of life, the Lord of glory. Pilate—that terror-stricken judge—was overcome by your shouts, so that he chose a man for pardon who was a murderer and demanded the crucifixion of the Savior of the world. SERMON 41.5. [2]

[1] The death of Jesus has signified the exhaustion of the function of the temple.

[2] SC 74:35; NPNF 2 12:166**.

BREAKING FETTERS

ORIGEN: Anyone who demands from me a scriptural text concerning the breaking of those fetters with which the chief priests and elders bound Jesus should understand that it was on account of this very event that Jesus said through the prophet, “Let us break their bonds.” [1] It was just as though Jesus had said this of the chief priests and elders, or even more so of those rulers who operated through them and of the kings of the world who “set themselves,” and of those rulers who “take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed,” who also said, “let us cast their cords from us.” [2]

Our inquirer will be satisfied still more with scriptural demonstration that Jesus broke the chains of those who “took counsel” against him and led him away, bound, if he understands the meaning of what was written concerning Samson, who also broke the fetters of those foreigners who bound him, for he was a Nazirite of God and had power in his uncut head of hair. [3] If therefore he whose power came from the hair on his head was able to break the chains of the oppressors who bound him, how much more will Christ decisively break those chains binding him, who, after performing great signs and miracles, freely delivered himself to be bound (the power of his divine nature lay dormant and still, allowing him to be captured). Samson’s bonds were but a type of Christ’s. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 115. [4]

[1] Ps 2:3. On the messianic significance of Psalm 2 mentioned by Origen, see p. 265 n. 3.

[2] Ps 2:2-3.

[3] Judg 16:4-22.

[4] GCS 38.2:242-43.

THEY BOUND HIM

JEROME: The Lord was led not only to Pilate but also to Herod so that he could be mocked by both. Notice the solicitude with which the priests carried out their evil doing; they remained vigilant throughout the night in preparation for committing murder. “And they delivered him bound to Pilate.” It was their customary practice to bind a man who had been condemned to death and to hand him over to his judge. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.27.1-2. [1]

[1] CCL 77:263.

27:3-5 | Judas Hangs Himself

I HAVE SINNED IN BETRAYING INNOCENT BLOOD

CHRYSOSTOM: This was a charge both against him and against these others. Against Judas, not because he repented but because he did so late and slowly and became self-condemned. For that he gave himself up, he himself confessed. And it was a charge against the others, in that having the power to reverse the verdict, they did not repent. But observe when it is that Judas feels remorse. When his sin was completed and had been fully accomplished. The devil is like this. He does not permit those that are inattentive to see the evil in due time, lest they might repent. At least when Jesus was saying so many things, Judas was not influenced. But when his offense was completed, then repentance came upon him. And then it was too late to be profitable. For to condemn it and to throw down the pieces of silver and not to regard the Jewish people were all acceptable things. But to hang himself, this again was unpardonable and a work of an evil spirit. For the devil led him out of his repentance too soon, so that he should reap no fruit from it, and carried him off by a most disgraceful death, and one manifest to all, having persuaded him to destroy himself. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 85.2. [1]

[1] PG 58:759; NPNF 1 10:507

HE BROUGHT BACK THE SILVER

JEROME: The weight of Judas’s impiety overshadowed the magnitude of his avarice. Seeing the Lord condemned to death, he brought the money to the priests as if it were in his power to change the sentence of Christ’s persecutors. Although he would change his mind eventually, he could not change the consequence of his first decision. Yet if he sins who betrays innocent blood, how much more do they sin who purchase innocent blood and provoke a disciple by offering a reward for his apostasy. Those who deny the apostle’s free will and attempt instead to explain Judas’s betrayal by attributing to him an evil nature will need also to explain how a person of evil nature can repent. [1] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.27.4. [2]

[1] On the various human natures identified by Gnostics and Manichaeans, see Matthew 1-13 (ACCS), p. 155 n. 18. To the affirmation that Judas was evil by nature, Jerome objects that he would not thus have repented.

[2] CCL 77:263.

HE REPENTED

ORIGEN: Let us see whether or not, by the grace of God, we can explain the meaning of the following verse, which still remains hidden to many: “When Judas his betrayer saw him condemned, he repented and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests” and so on. [1]

If this were written after Jesus had been sentenced by Pilate, scourged and delivered to the Jews for crucifixion, [2] we would not need to inquire any further into the meaning of the report that “Judas … saw him condemned” because we know that Judas was a party to those events.

But how is it that Judas saw Jesus condemned before Jesus had either been sentenced or interrogated by Pilate? Some perhaps will answer that Judas was anticipating in his mind the final result of Jesus having been handed over by the chief priests and elders of the people, which he did witness. Others, however, will say that one whom Judas “saw condemned” was not Jesus but Judas himself. According to this account, when the chief priests and elders of the people handed Jesus over to Pilate, Judas then realized the evil he had done and understood that such an audacious act was already under the judgment and condemnation of God. Perhaps also Satan, who had entered Judas after the dipping of the morsel of bread, remained present in him until Jesus was delivered to Pilate but “departed from him” [3] after he finished accomplishing Satan’s will. Judas then sensed the devil’s departure and at once saw and understood that “betraying righteous blood” is condemned by God, which he was able to understand only after the devil had ceased working in him. Only then, free from Satan’s influence, was Judas capable of penitence by returning the thirty pieces of silver to those who had paid him. When the devil had left him, he could then say what he had not been able to say earlier, for when his heart was still full of Satan he was unable to confess, “I have sinned in betraying righteous blood.” We are not saying, however, that the devil ceases to prey upon anyone whom he may have left. Rather, he waits and watches for an opportune moment to apply himself again. Even after his victim has sinned and come to recognize the devil’s influence, he still waits and watches for yet a third opportunity to deceive. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 117. [4]

[1] Matthew says that Judas repents upon seeing Jesus condemned, but when he repents Jesus has not yet been condemned. The second of the two explanations adopted by Origen to resolve the apparent anomaly is based on the fact that grammatically the subject of “was condemned” can be either Jesus or Judas. Origen forces the interpretation of the passage into this second sense.

[2] Mt 27:26.

[3] Lk 4:13.

[4] GCS 38.2:245-47.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN REMAIN

JEROME: It profits nothing to do an act of penance which is incapable of correcting the sin. If a man sins against his brother in such a way that the wrong he committed can be amended, it is possible for him to be forgiven. If the consequences of his sin remain in force, however, in vain does he attempt to do penance. The psalmist applies this truth to our most miserable Judas when he says, “Let his prayer be counted as sin.” [1] Not only was Judas unable to repair the damage of his sinful betrayal, but he even continued to compound the evil of that initial crime by committing suicide. Of such things the apostle speaks in his second epistle to the Corinthians: “Let not a brother be overwhelmed by greater sorrow.” [2] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.27.5. [3]

[1] Ps 109:7 (108:7 LXX).

[2] 2 Cor 2:7.

[3] CCL 77:263-64.

27:6-8 | Buying a Field with Blood Money

NOT LAWFUL TO PUT INTO THE TREASURY

CHRYSOSTOM: If they had put the blood money into the treasury, their deed might have remained relatively more hidden. But the religious leaders make clear their guilt to all subsequent generations by buying the piece of land for burial. They thereby unconsciously declare their guilt.

So do not imagine that someone might do a good work through murder and use the reward for some supposed good purpose. Such alms are satanic. Such reasoning is twisted. Do not be naive about this. There are still many who imagine that they are permitted to violently take countless things that belong to others. Then they make an excuse for their violence if they give some ten or a hundred gold pieces to charity. Of these the prophet has said, “You have covered my altar with tears.” [1] Christ is not willing to be fed by covetousness. He does not accept these gifts. Why do you insult your Lord by offering these unclean things? It is better to leave people to pine with hunger than to feed them from these polluted sources. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 85.3. [2]

[1] Mal 2:13.

[2] PG 58:761; NPNF 1 10:509.

PROOF OF TREASON

CHRYSOSTOM: Once again they are self-condemned by their own conscience. Don’t you see this? They knew that they had been paying straightaway for a murder. They even bought a field for the burial of strangers. They did not even put the silver into a treasury. So this directness itself became a witness against them and a proof of their treason. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 85.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:760-61; NPNF 1 10:508.

TO BURY STRANGERS

ORIGEN: Because the quality of resting places for the dead varies (for many are buried in their ancestral tombs which were secured by a pledge, but those who suffer misfortune are often buried in the graves of the homeless), those who received payment in exchange for the blood of Jesus used it to acquire a potter’s field for the purpose of having a place in which to bury those foreigners who could not supply a pledge to secure a proper tomb. If it is suitable to interpret these foreigners typologically, we can consider those persons to be foreigners who remained strangers to God until the end and alien to his covenants. Vagabonds such as these meet their end buried in a potter’s field acquired with blood money. The righteous are able to say, “We are buried with Christ in a new tomb cut from the rock in which no dead body had yet been laid,” but those foreigners who remain finally estranged from Christ and alien to God will have to say, “We are buried with strangers in the field which is called the ‘Field of Blood.’ ” COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 117. [1]

[1] GCS 38.2:248-49.

THEY TOOK COUNSEL

CHRYSOSTOM: They did not make these decisions randomly but took counsel together. This indicates that no one is innocent of the deed. All are guilty. So it is in cases of conspiracy. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 85.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:761; NPNF 1 10:509.

THE FIELD OF BLOOD

CHRYSOSTOM: Even the very name of the place proclaims more sharply than a trumpet their guilt of murder. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 85.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:761; NPNF 1 10:508-9.

27:9-10 | Fulfilling Jeremiah’s Prophecy

SPOKEN BY THE PROPHET

CHRYSOSTOM: All these things had been foretold from ancient times by prophecy. It was not the apostles alone but the prophets who were also declaring these events precisely as they occurred. Don’t you see how they foresaw in every way the suffering of Christ? How they knew of its chastisement beforehand? THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 85.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:761; NPNF 1 10:509.

ON THE SOURCE OF MATTHEW’S QUOTATION

JEROME: This prophecy does not come from Jeremiah but from a similar passage in Zechariah, [1] who is almost the last of the twelve prophets. Although the meaning does not differ much, Zechariah’s word order and vocabulary do conflict with Matthew’s quotation. [2] In a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures given to me by a member of the Nazarene sect, I recently read an apocryphal edition of the book of Jeremiah in which this quotation from Matthew appeared word for word. Nevertheless it still seems more likely to me that Matthew took this prophecy from Zechariah, since it was the ordinary practice of the Evangelists and apostles to communicate only the meaning of texts from the Old Testament while neglecting to observe their word order. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.27.10. [3]

[1] Zech 11:12-13.

[2] In reality the citation corresponds in part to Jeremiah 32:6-9 and in part to Zechariah 11:12-13. On the apocryphal book of Jeremiah mentioned here by Jerome, the information is limited and unclear.

[3] CCL 77:264-65.

THE POTTER’S FIELD

MAXIMUS OF TURIN:

This field then is this entire world, in which we who have been dispersed and scattered bear the fruit of good work for the Lord.

Yet perhaps you would inquire of me, if the field is the world, who the potter might be who could have the ownership of the world. Unless I am mistaken, the potter is the one who made the vessels of our body from clay. Scripture says of him, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust from the earth.” [1] The potter is the one who, with the warmth of his own breath, made alive the slimy clay of our flesh and with fiery heat put together the fluid and earthly matter of our bodies.

The potter, I say, is the one who fashioned us unto life with his own hands and who is refashioning us unto glory through his Christ. The apostle says, “We are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.” [2] That is to say, we who from our previous condition have broken to pieces because of our own misdeeds are restored in a second birth through the loving kindness of this same potter. We who have been struck by death because of Adam’s transgression rise anew through the grace of the Savior. Clearly this potter is the one of whom the blessed apostle says, “Will what is molded say to its molder?” And again, “Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?” [3] For from the same clay of our body God preserves some persons for the kingdom on account of their individual merits and keeps others for punishment.

The field of this potter, then, was bought with Christ’s blood for travelers. For travelers, I say, who were without home or country and were cast about as exiles throughout the earth, rest is provided by the blood of Christ, so that those who have no possession in the world might have a burial place in Christ. Who do we say that these travelers are if not very devout Christians who, renouncing the world and possessing nothing in the world, rest in the blood of Christ? For the Christian who does not possess the world utterly possesses the Savior. Christ’s burial place then is promised to travelers so that the one who preserves himself from fleshly vices like a traveler and stranger may merit Christ’s rest. For what is Christ’s burial place if not the Christian’s rest? We therefore are travelers, in this world, and we sojourn in this life as passersby, as the apostle says: “While we are in this body we are away from the Lord.” [4] We are travelers, I say, and a burial place has been bought for us at the price of the Savior’s blood. “We have been buried with him,” the apostle says, “through baptism in his death.” [5] Baptism therefore is Christ’s burial place for us, in which we die to sins, are buried to evil deeds and are restored to a renewed infancy, the conscience of the old person having been dissolved in us for the sake of another birth. SERMONS 59.3-4. [6]

[1] Gen 2:7.

[2] 2 Cor 3:18.

[3] Rom 9:20-21.

[4] 2 Cor 5:6.

[5] Rom 6:4.

[6] CCL 23:237-38; ACW 50:142-44*.