URC Dsily Devotion 27 March 2026
St Matthew 27: 3 – 10
When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’ Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.’ After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.’
Reflection: Blood money. Dirty money.
Even the chief priests, who already had metaphorical bloody hands on the issue of the betrayal of Jesus, felt a bit ‘icky’ about this money. They got rid of it for the purpose of another dirty task – burial of unclean bodies.
Judas was probably directly handed his 30 pieces of silver and then witnessed the effect that his acquisition of this money had on his one time friend. The arrest and brutalising of an innocent man.
Have you ever handled dirty money?
I’d like to think that I hadn’t. I never really see money. It’s all digital and I rarely see the affects the decisions I make about my digital money have. But the more I think about it, the more I am concerned about how dirty my money is.
What is my money in the bank doing? Where are my taxes going? Somewhere in the global capitalist system, money that has been mine, or will become mine will have passed through the hands of weapon manufacturers, corrupt governments, organised crime, fast fashion brands, those using cheap labour, fossil fuel firms etc. I am sure many of you have had the same thought and as a denomination it is something we have thought carefully about. But how can we exist outside this system?
Judas’ stark exposure to the outcome of his monetary dealings caused him to repent. We are so often shielded from the outcome of our monetary dealings that the knowledge of our need for repentance can become blurred. This story is a reminder that post resurrection, repentance is not death, but new life, creativity, problem solving, standing against the system.
Prayer
Generous God,
there’s a saying that money talks.
an idea that it can manipulate and persuade us.
But we confess that we know better.
We so often choose money over a pricking conscience,
and in so doing manipulate and persuade ourselves
of our helplessness on this issue.
Lord in your mercy, and in the light of the resurrection,
turn us around, open our eyes, and make us creative in our response.
Amen