Matthew 27 - Did Judas Go to Hell? Why Would Have the Disciples Taken Jesus Out of the Tomb?

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More from Chapter 26 which I did not get to yesterday!

In chapter 26, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Jesus knew it was going to happen. He had already spent the night in the Garden of Gethsemane agonizing over what he knew was going to happen to him. But after he had pleaded with the Father three times to take this cup from him, he concluded "Not my will, but your be done." Meanwhile his disciples who were supposed to be praying were sleeping. Jesus faced the hardest night of his life all alone.

At the end of his prayer, Jesus was ready to set his face toward the cross. He said, "Arise my betrayers are at hand." Judas led a mob of people armed with clubs and swords. They were ready for resistance but got none. Jesus was in charge not them. 

Meanwhile Jesus came before the Sanhedrin, the 70 ruling elders of the temple. They questioned Jesus to find something to convict him of that would be deserving of death. At the end of the day, they asked Jesus, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?" This was "go time"! If Jesus said "yes" to this, they would have the evidence they needed. Jesus simply said, "You have said so!" In addition, he told them they would not see the Son of Man until he was sitting at the right hand of God. 

Jesus had now unequivocally asserted that He was God. To claim to be God was blasphemy unless he really was the Son of God. Now they had a reason to convict and kill him according to the Jewish Law. 

Meanwhile Peter was hiding in a courtyard when a servant girl came up to him and asked him if he was a disciple of Jesus. He denied it and left. Another servant girl also recognized him as someone who was with Jesus. This time with an oath he said, "I don't know the man" Finally, others noticed his Galilean accent and once again posed the question, "Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” This time Peter called out curses and said, "I don't know the man". Peter wouldn't even use Jesus' name, he was so scared. 

Then what Jesus predicted came true as the rooster crowed. This fulfilled what Jesus had told Peter. He told him he would disown him three times before the rooster crowed. Peter went outside and wept bitterly.  

Though we like to look down at Peter, would we have done the same thing if our lives were on the line? And how do we deny Jesus in smaller ways in our lives today? Maybe you are led to share Jesus with someone but you shrink away as if to say, "I don't know the man"!

Judas Hangs Himself

While Peter wept bitterly, Judas was even more distraught. After all, he had literally sold out Jesus and arranged the plot for him to handed over, arrested, and eventually crucified. When he realized the weight of his betrayal it was too much for him. 

Let's give Judas the credit for returning the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and saying, "I have betrayed innocent blood." 

In fulfillment of prophecy Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver into the temple. For their part the chief priests realized it was blood money and did not put it into the treasury, but used it to buy the potter's field, which was used to bury foreigners. It is ironic that the blood money would be used for a burial place for foreigners rather to benefit people in the temple treasury.  When the Jewish people led by its leaders rejected the gospel, it would be taken to the Gentiles aka foreigners. 

“The treasury, perhaps the source from which the money had been paid to Judas, would be the natural place to deposit money left in the temple, but its use as blood money made it unclean. A burial ground (itself an unclean place) would be a suitable use for it.” (France)

How ironic is that the chief priests thought they were being holy and obedient to the Law by not using the money for the temple, yet the just killed the innocent son of God. 

A question many ask is, "Was Judas Saved?" 

First of all only God knows a man's heart, so none of can say for sure. Some might say that he committed the unforgiveable sin, because he committed suicide but the bible does not say this. Suicide breaks the Fifth Commandment, but in a sense killing oneself is no different than killing someone else's life. Taking a life is taking a life. It is sinful but not unforgiveable. As I mentioned Judas was remorseful for betraying Jesus. Was this repentance? Bottom line I think there is a chance Judas was saved.  

Here is a strong argument for Judas being in Hell

Here is a good argument that Judas was saved by grace

I see the points in both arguments, but I would have to say I lean toward the latter. Judas made horrible mistakes for which he showed true remorse. We will find out one day what happened to Judas. If am going to err, it will always be on the side of "grace that saved a wretch like me". 

Jesus Before Pilate

Jesus comes before the Roman governor Pilate. He had quite the history. 

History shows us Pontius Pilate was a cruel and ruthless man, unkind to the Jews and contemptuous of almost everything but raw power. Here, he seems out of character in the way he treated Jesus. Jesus seems to have profoundly affected him. (Guzik)

Similar to the questioning by the Jewish leaders, Pilate tries to get Jesus to admit he is the "king of the Jews". The language of "king" would have been more threatening to the Romans, as if Jesus were leading an insurrection. The term "Messiah" also has the meaning of king. Messiah, means anointed one. David was the first king to be anointed in Israel, and Jesus was from the line of King David. Later Jesus will be called, "The King of kings and the Lord of lords". 

The governor's custom was to release one prisoner at the Passover time to placate the Jews on this special holiday. There was another man named "Barabbas", who was a known criminal. 

Mark 15:7 tells us what made Barabbas notorious. He was one of several insurrectionists, who had committed murder in the insurrection. We would today regard a man like Barabbas as something like a revolutionary terrorist. (Guzik)

Not only did Pilate know the conviction of Jesus was an inside job, but his wife also had vivid dreams and warned him not to have anything to do with Jesus. Meanwhile the Jewish leaders had manipulated the frenzied crowd to ask him to release Barabbas, instead of Jesus. So when Pilate asked the crowd what they wanted to do with Jesus, they said in unison, 

Crucify him!” “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

So while we can blame the Jewish leaders for initiating and following through with the plot to kill Jesus, we see here the people are also culpable. Pilate quickly saw the crowd becoming riotous and the last thing he wanted on his hands was a riot in his city. But he is also conflicted. 

"Pilate took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

Clearly Pilate wasn't buying any of it. Yet, since he did the sentencing, he still deserve a degree of responsibility for Jesus' death. So we see how all people, both Jew and Gentile, had a part in the crucifixion of Jesus. 

Little did the people know how prophetic they were when they shouted, 

"His blood is on us and on our children!”

“The call Let him be crucified is remarkable on the lips of a Jewish crowd, for crucifixion was a Roman punishment, abhorrent to most Jews.” (France)

“Oh, the daring of Pilate thus in the sight of God to commit murder and disclaim it. There is a strange mingling of cowardliness and courage about many men; they are afraid of a man, but not afraid of the eternal God who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” (Spurgeon)

"They really had no understanding of what they asked for. They didn’t understand the glory of Jesus’ cleansing blood, and how wonderful it would be to have His blood…on us and on our children. They also didn’t understand the enormity of the crime of calling for the execution of the sinless Son of God, and the judgment that would be visited on their children some forty years later in the destruction of Jerusalem." (Guzik)

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

The ironic twist of all of these events continues when the governor's soldiers dress Jesus up in a purple robe, put crown of thorns on him, and gave him a staff. These were all things a king would have. But instead of giving homage to the king, they mocked him, spit on him, and struck him on the head saying, 

"Hail, king of the Jews!”

They took off his robes, took away his staff, and left him with a crown of thorns, as they led him away to be crucified. It is hard to put into words what is happening here. The Son of God is being spit upon and struck by these earthly scoundrels. With one word Jesus could have dispatched a legion of angels to wipe them off the face of the planet. 

But Jesus did none of this, because he knew his mission was to go to the cross to die for our sins. He did it for us. 

The Crucifixion of Jesus

We meet a man from Cyrene (which is in Africa), who was probably in for the Passover. He was made to carry Jesus' cross, as Jesus was now to weak to carry it. 

Wonderfully, we have reason to believe that Simon came to know what it really meant to take up one’s cross and follow Jesus. There is some evidence to suggest that his sons became leaders among the early Christians (Mark 15:21 and Romans 16:13). (Guzik)

There continues to be many details of Jesus' crucifixion that fulfilled prophecy hundreds of years prior. In Psalm 22 David writes, "They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment."

The mockery continued as they nailed a placard over Jesus' head, 

This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.

Two rebellious criminals, who deserved to be there, were on Jesus' right and left.  Perhaps they represent the sin of all humanity Jesus was going to die for. The innocent one would die for the guilty ones. 

At this point Jesus receives a barrage of insults from the criminals, to the people, and the religious leaders. They basically say, "If you are a king, how come you can't save yourself." They remembered when Jesus said, "You tear down this temple and I will build it up in three days" and taunted him with this statement.  "Let God rescue him if he wants!"

The Death of Jesus

At three in the afternoon darkness came over the whole land symbolic of the wrath of God which would be laid upon His son. Again Jesus quoted from Psalm 22:1 which his ancient relative King David had uttered, 

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus was forsaken by His Father. He had to be forsaken so we could be forgiven. When some people saw the innocent Lamb of God dying on the cross, moved by the Holy Spirit they said, 

"Surely he was the Son of God!”

As Jesus died something very significant happened. The curtain in the temple was torn in two. The holy curtain separated the holy place from the most holy place. Only the High Priest could go into the most holy place, also known as the "holy of holies". The curtain being torn in two was symbolic of the fact that we can now enter the holy of holies by what Jesus did for us on the cross. He made us holy (and whole) when he paid all of debts on the cross, so I am set free to have a relationship with God the Father. 

Verse 55 gives us an very interesting detail surrounding Jesus' death. There were many women in the distance who had not fled including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and John. 

Jesus not only made an impact upon rough and hardened men like the Roman centurion, but He also made an impact on women, even women like Mary Magdalene (the formerly demon-possessed woman who followed Jesus from Galilee, according to Luke 8:2). (Guzik)

Many women: “To their everlasting honour, these women evidenced more courage, and affectionate attachment to their Lord and Master, than the disciples did, who had promised to die with him rather than forsake him.” (Clarke)

The Burial of Jesus

We meet another disciple of Jesus we had not met before in Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph was a wealthy man and he used his wealth to honor Jesus by buying him a clean white linen and laying him in a tomb made of rock, which he had bought for himself. Pilate once again shows his sympathy to Jesus by ordering his guards to give Joseph the body. Since one of the conspiracy theories of the Jews was that someone had stolen the body, it was no small thing for Pilate to do this. 

He rolled a huge stone in front of the tomb to guard it from wolves and thieves and went on his way. Meanwhile, the two Mary's sat in front of the tomb. His faithful followers did not want to leave him alone even though he was dead. Perhaps they truly believed he would rise from the dead just like he had said when he was alive. 

“It was a new tomb, wherein no remains had been previously laid, and thus if he came forth from it there would be no suspicion that another had arisen, nor could it be imagined that he rose through touching some old prophet’s bones, as he did who was laid in Elisha’s grave.” (Spurgeon)

Tombs like this were very expensive. It was quite a sacrifice for Joseph of Arimathea to give his up – but Jesus would only use it for a few days! (Guzik)

The Guard at the Tomb

The Jewish leaders were well aware that Jesus had said he would rise from the dead in three days, so they asked Pilate to seal the tomb and put guards on duty. Their fear was the disciples would steal the body to keep the supposed deception going. 

Why the disciples would not have wanted to steal the body?

1. They were utterly depressed after the death of their master, and their refusal to defend him. Why would they have any reason to steal his body?

2.  It would show that they didn't believe in Jesus' words that in three days, he would rise from the dead. If they stole the body, they were just perpetuating a lie that would have further depressed them. 

3. We know later that disciples like Peter, died for their faith. Why would anyone die for something they knew was a lie.  They would have known he was not who he said he was. He was a liar not the Lord.  

4. They wouldn't have had the manpower to roll away the stone much less trick the guards who were guarding the tomb upon their life.

These reason are some of the greatest proofs that Jesus REALLY DID RISE from the dead and REALLY is the Son of God!