The chief priest gathered up the money, but said, “it is not lawful to deposit this in the Temple treasury, for it is the price of blood.” After consultation, they used it to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why that field even today is calling the Field of Blood.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of a man with a price on his head, a price set by some of the Israelites, and they paid it out for the potter’s field just as the Lord had commanded me.” (Mt. 27:6-10)
Here begins the haunting trail of innocent blood.
Judas tried to get rid of his guilt by throwing the “blood money” into the Temple. But the blood was still on his hands.
The chief priests and elders try to get ride of it by using it to buy a burial ground for the poor. But the blood was still on their hands.
Pilate will try to get rid of it by taking water, washing his hands, and saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” But the blood will still be on his hands.
Trying to get rid of the blood of Jesus is futile. His blood is on all of us, for we are all sinners. What we need to do is acknowledge our sinfulness and let this blood do what it is meant to do. Wash away our sins.
It was for all of us that Jesus died. It was for Judas, for the chief priests and elders, for Pilate, for the people who said, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
It was for me that he died.
Spend some quiet time with the Lord.
