27 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. 2 And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.
3 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. 6 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.” 7 So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.”
The dark deed of Judas now comes to its final denouement. The word in 3 translated 'repented' is not the usual word denoting a change of mind or heart but one which merely expresses regret and remorse and a desire to wish it undone. This indicates that the black heart of the traitor was by this time incapable of repentance in any wholesome or hopeful sense of the word. The attempts to whitewash Judas by suggesting that his motives in betraying Jesus were sincere though mistaken, and that he was really trying to force His hand into displaying His power and establishing His kingdom are therefore wide of the mark and miss the point; for this is not the view taken by the New Testament or by Jesus either (cf 24). Nor is it callous on our part (any more than it was on the part of the apostles of our Lord) to refuse to admit of any more 'charitable' interpretation than to say, with them, that Judas 'went to his own place' (Acts 1:25), but simply realistic, since this is the clear testimony of the Scripture concerning him. And this tragic end stands as a terribly solemn warning and reminder of the ultimate issues of sin. As James says, 'Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death' (1:13-15). The other dark actors in this scene are the chief priests. They, ritually correct and precise to the end, cannot defile themselves or the treasury by putting 'blood-money' into the temple coffers, but put it to other use, and buy the potter's field. Few things could have highlighted the essential hypocrisy and the terrible falsity of their religion more than this. How revolting to see men with murder in their hearts and on their hands so hidebound and hypocritically punctilious in barren outward observance. So tragically far had they departed from truth and righteousness.