Matthew 27:1-3
The story of
our Lord’s suffering moves into slow motion as we enter the second-to-the- last
chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. With a simple stroke of the pen across the
parchment, we get the words: “Now when morning had come” (only three words in
the Greek text). With such verbal brevity, history’s longest night is recorded.
Almost without notice, the night, which must have seemed would never end in the
mind of our Lord, is tossed aside, and the spotlight centers on the Jewish
leaders.
In the early
dawn of the last day before His resurrection, the eyes of Jesus’ betrayer are
riveted on the shackled Savior of the world. The knife of conviction sliced its
way through the corneas of Judas’ eyes as he realized that he had just helped
turn the last page of Jesus’ earthly life. With two little four-letter Greek
words, the third verse begins: “Then having seen.” It would perhaps be an
over-translation, but certainly not a violation of the truth, to write:
“Suddenly, now realizing his mistake.”
Time knows no
mercy. The sand of reality only fits through the hourglass in one direction,
and once it has passed, it is irretrievable. Suddenly, the thirty pieces of
silver in Judas’ pocket have become heavy enough to drag him down into hell.
His sin has cut him off from the twelve men with whom he has lived for three
years, and the rift made is too wide to ever be bridged.
The word that
describes Judas at this point is one of two words that is often translated
“repentance,’ and yet it probably should be translated “remorse.” There is a
vast difference between remorse and repentance. The former is an emotion. It is
a feeling. It is a passing mood. When Jesus and John the Baptist call for
repentance in the early pages of Matthew’s Gospel, they are not calling for a
mood change. God’s call to us is based on a feeling, but it goes beyond
feelings.
Our concept of
repentance gets tangled up between the will and the emotions. Remorse is stuck
in the feelings and produces very little. Repentance moves beyond the feelings
and acts. Repentance lives on the mental side of feelings.
Years ago, a
group of elders caught a man in our congregation in the very act of sin. He
wept and wept and wept. We had compassion on him and interpreted his weeping as
repentance. We mercifully told him that we would not take his sin before the
congregation on the basis that he would never be seen with this woman again.
Within weeks, they were seen together, and suddenly we knew what we had here was
not repentance, but rather remorse. They are different.
Remorse is a
universal feeling experienced by all who have been caught in sin. Repentance is
a gift from God that is the doorknob on heaven’s door. Repentant men are
desperate. Repentant men do not attempt to negotiate or shop for discount
consequences from their wrongdoing. Repentance acts, while remorse can muster
little more than a feeling. Repentance
frees, while remorse can only imprison.
Matthew 27:1-3
The reaction of Judas
a.
b.
c.
The mystery of time
a.
b.
c.
III. The
elements of decision
a.
b.
c.
IV. The contrast between remorse and repentance
a.
b.
c.