#43: Wednesday, 8 April, 2020
**Wednesday, 8 April — The King Establishes His Kingdom. Matt. 27:1–10**
This short reading in the context of *Jesus Establishing his Kingdom* serves as a severe ***cautionary tale***. Each of the first eight verses that precede the reference to Jeremiah contain at least one pointer to a common theme: *1. Death, 2. Bound, 3. Betrayed/condemned/remorse, 4. Betrayed innocent blood/your responsibility, 5. Threw the money/hanged himself, 6. Blood money, 7. Burial place, 8. Field of Blood.*
The common theme: this short passage portrays the terrifying concept of *Denying the Kingdom of God*.
A ***cautionary tale*** is a term given to a story told in medieval folklore to warn people away from serious or mystical dangers. It generally involves a grim prohibition of some kind, a failure to observe the prohibition, and a grisly description of what happens to a person or group who fail to heed the warning.
In our short passage, the prohibition is implicit in the whole of Matthew's Gospel: Do not deny the holy mission and person of Jesus Christ, Messiah, Son of God. To assault his name, his mission, his person is the most dangerous thing that any creature could possibly do.
Surely this is one of the saddest pages in Matthew's Gospel. A man who had been with Jesus, seen him do miracles, heard his teaching, known his love – chose to betray the Lord of the Universe ***for a small purseful of silver!***
Matthew has shown us in quick succession, two people in deep remorse: Peter and Judas. Peter wept bitterly in tears of repentance; Judas wept bitterly and killed himself.
Peter would be graciously restored by Jesus a few days later. Would Judas have been forgiven, too, had he waited and confessed his sin? Undoubtedly. But suicide as a solution to sin is no solution at all. One person's remorse led to life, the other to death.
We live in a culture of death, as Pope John-Paul II famously wrote in his encyclical, *Evangelium Vitae* (*Gospel of Life*). In Jesus' Kingdom, there is a culture of life. Outside his Kingdom, ***and especially where there is active opposition to his Kingdom,*** there is an inevitable, constantly-deepening culture of death. This is the stark message to be heard in this short reading.
Matthew is relating the story of *Jesus Establishing his Kingdom of Life* – but he is using this short narrative to contrast the alternative – the culture of death outside that Kingdom.
In the ancient world, 30 pieces of silver was the standard price of a slave. But you could use the money *either to buy a slave or to set one free*. Judas found that his money enslaved himself.
Choosing death is always a form of human madness – always morally skewed, but sometimes rendered subtly attractive by the devious one who hates the Loving Rule of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, I praise you for the abundance of life that you embody. You yourself said that you came to give us life; freer, more abundant life than we could possibly find anywhere else. I believe that with all my heart. Help me always to choose life, not to fear death, but not to welcome it either, entering with soft slippers on its little cloven feet. Amen.