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.” (Matthew 27)
Judas wanted to "get out of the deal", to try to buy Jesus back, or at least to buy back his innocence. We do have to this to say for him - he was willing to admit he had been wrong. That is a first step many of us find hard to take. The chief priests also had a decision to make at that point. They could have said "oops, we made a mistake too," and dropped the charges. But they had washed their hands of all responsibility, and did all they could to separate themselves from the situation - from Judas, from the money, and from Jesus. What extent are we willing to go to in order to excuse ourselves from responsibility?
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