Blood Money

Matthew 27:3-10

Blood money; In the Japanese culture and many others, it is common to give blood money to a victim's family.  So who put a price on the value of life, a judge, a family member, or do we look to our Creator to see the value of life?  Do you recall the Scriptures addressing a young man named Cain, who was angry with his brother Abel in that he had found favor with God and Cain had not?  Shall we pick up the account in Genesis 4:6-7, The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”  After God had spoken to him about his jealousy, Cain did not repent but allowed his emotions to control him and killed his brother.  Now the rest of the story; And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”  (Genesis 4:10-16)

I’m not sure we grasp the punishment, no longer would Cain see the face of God, and what is a man who has walked with God and now is removed from fellowship?  And the ground, his source of life support, will no longer yield as it once had.  Cain knows he is a marked man and a fugitive on earth.  Others will try to kill him for his deed, so God places a mark on Cain and gives warning to anyone who brings harm to Cain, that vengeance would be taken on them sevenfold. 

Back to Matthew’s account of Judas the betrayer, once he saw that Jesus was condemned he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priest and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”  They said “What is that to us?  See to it yourself.”  And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went out and hanged himself.  But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.”  (Matthew 27:4-6) 

It is just like the devil to put an evil desire in our hearts and we do as Eve in the Garden, we see it and desire what it will do for us, with no regard for the will of God, and as soon as it is done, the devil begins to accuse us and we are sorry.  How Judas misread the religious leaders, they were all about seeing Jesus condemned; they had no problem with innocent blood.  We should never forget that the end game of religion is death, Blaise Pascal hit it on the head; “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

As a follower of Christ, what value do you place on your relationship with God?  For Judas it was 30 pieces of sliver, and the prophet Jeremiah had proclaimed this would happen hundreds of years before and how the priest would buy a potter’s field with the blood money.  The question should ring in our ears, what is the value I place on my relationship and fellowship with the living Jesus?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice