February 20, 2012 Lent Midweek 2 Text: :7-14 & Matt. 27:1-10 Theme: The Objects of Lent - The 30 ”

30 pieces of silver for ’ betrayal was not coincidence. Like almost everything else in the life of our Lord, the price for his betrayal was meant to signal something for us. About 500 years before Jesus, Zechariah wrote our text that was read earlier. Hear it again.

[7] So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep.

Zechariah is a foreshadowing of Jesus himself. He is

shepherding the people with two staffs. One is favor – showing his

love for the sheep. The other is union – showing his ability to keep

the sheep as one body.

[8] In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. [9] So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another." [10] And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. [11] So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.

So Zechariah gave up on the sheep because they would not

follow. So he broke his staff of favor and annulled his covenant with

him.

[12] Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. [13] Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"--the lordly

1 | P a g e price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter. [14] Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

They paid him his wages. It was the lowest amount allowed – the price of a slave, thereby telling Zechariah that he was no more than a slave to them. The Lord told him not to keep the money but to throw it back into the temple. We’re not sure what the phrase

“throw it to the potter” means but we do know what a potter’s field is. It is a vacant piece of land that the potter used to throw his broken and misshapen pots. It was a colloquialism for a junk piece of ground that had no real use.

Zechariah was a prophet who was working to help the people of God adjust to life after Babylon. They had been in exile for a generation or two and they had to resettle the Promised Land and begin to function again as the people of God in their homeland.

Zechariah was the Good Shepherd just as Jesus would be in another

500 years or so. And the leaders of the day treated Zechariah much in the same way as they treated Jesus.

30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave was all either of them were worth to the leaders of the people. They did not want to listen to either Zechariah or Jesus. They wanted to do things their own way which is exactly how they had been sent to Babylon in the first

2 | P a g e place. So Zechariah breaks his staff of Union as well and throws the money back into the temple. Be scattered and without favor people of God. That is your choice.

The people of God simply will not learn. They had hardly been back in the Promised Land a few years and they were already busily cheating one another, ignoring the poor and the needy and worshipping whenever and whomever they liked. Are we so different? What’s the newest God? What are you tempted to do instead of worshipping God? Where are you tempted to commit your resources instead of proclaiming God’s love? We all know that God is important but how important? Is he worth our complete love and devotion or will thirty pieces of silver do? Do we toss thirty pieces of silver his way and expect him to get off our backs?

Maybe you, like me, have caught yourself thinking or even saying,

“I’ve done enough. I deserve a break! Let someone else deal with this or that for a while.” It is never “enough” when it comes to

God. There is no level reached after which you can relax. This life is a journey to the Promised Land. Don’t live for retirement folks, it may never come and even if it does, it may not be all that you think it is. Don’t live for the next job or the next big deal or the next

3 | P a g e whatever after which you will be able to relax. We are not here for relaxation. If you get a little fun and relaxation, that is a bonus – a gift from God to refresh us and encourage us in our journey but it is not our purpose. Our purpose is to glorify him by our vigilant work to proclaim the good news of salvation. When every single human being knows that Jesus Christ died on the cross and suffered hell to pay for his sins so that he could live forever with Christ – then we will be done, but not until then.

See, it is no mystery why Zechariah threw the coins into the temple. The Lord would not allow his prophet to be treated as a hired hand. He was the prophet of God who must be obeyed. If the people would not obey, they would have neither favor nor union. It is likewise no mystery why Judas threw the coins at the Pharisees.

He realized that he had put his faith in their political system instead of God and thereby gotten his friend crucified. In both cases, 30 silver coins was the price. In both cases, the price was not high enough, just a token to try to buy off the Lord.

What is tempting you to ignore the things of God and pursue some other path? Is it worth it? Is it worth the eventual pain and hardship that it will bring? Look to the Word and you will discover that it is not. Follow Christ. Stay off spurious, dangerous paths.

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Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto to you.

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