The Passion in Seven Objects: 2 - Silver Coins

In the week leading up to Easter we try to enter more deeply into what Jesus is doing as he walks the way to the cross. I offer these brief meditations in that spirit, each day using one of the objects that appears in the gospels.

2. SILVER COINS

When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders (Matthew 27.3)

Looking at Judas, we need to be very careful. His very name hints at his Jewish identity, and of course he is involved with the Jewish religious leaders of his day. In centuries past the Christians have charged Jews with deicide, murdering God. It has contributed towards a culture of contempt which in turn has helped to pave the way for genocide. Unfortunately, some of the readings from the gospel of John in Holy Week can also seem to be anti-Jewish. But when we hear the mob swept along in its own fervour, it sounds pretty much like every mob in history. And when we hear of the authorities getting worried about the Son of Man helping the poor and downtrodden, it sounds like every authoritarian regime we have ever read about, fearful of subversion. The Jews are not to blame. But how appropriate is the whole idea of blame when we come to the suffering and death of Jesus? Consider the example of Judas himself.

When I came to read the passage from Matthew quoted above for this meditation I registered something for the first time: Judas repented. Somehow all through the years I had overlooked that little word, repented. And surely it changes how we see Judas? Not so much a monster as a foolish, complex man with a weakness for money. Someone, in fact, not that different from ourselves.

One commentary that I consulted described him as 'doomed and damned'. But didn't he repent? And doesn't God forgive those who repent? Judas in returning the money lamented that he had betrayed an innocent man. That sounds like something from the heart. As Christians we cling to repentance like a life raft in a stormy sea. We know that we can come to the Lord again and again. In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis has said that while we may weary of confessing our sins, God never wearies of responding to us with forgiveness.

Have a closer look at those thirty silver coins. They were stamped with the image of a Roman emperor - someone who had been proclaimed as god-like. This was a blasphemy. But everybody used those coins. They were part of the commerce of everyday life. Only in the Temple were they banned. This meant that Jews, who were careful not to fall into idolatry, still had to deal with coins carrying a blasphemous image. This was the sting behind Jesus's words about rendering to Caesar what belonged to Caesar, and to God what belonged to God. In carrying those coins they were already part of the world with all its compromises.

What about us, today, in our advanced capitalist economy? Today money is more and more an set of digits flowing through computers. We, too, have to deal with money having no idea what it contributed to before it came to us, or what it will go afterwards. Like Judas and his silver coins, we are deeply implicated in the world around us. And yes, our money too, has idolatrous implications. What we spend our money on will show what we worship in material terms.

So perhaps we should look at Judas with more pity and less horror. Together we are all part of the world that Jesus came to save. We belong to a world that wants to ignore this saving initiative of God, a world that struggles to understand who Christ is. We do not claim to be better than others, we are simply grateful that we know Jesus Christ and that he knows us. And that the door to repentance is always open.

Lord Jesus Christ,
you told us again and again
that God loves us and is a God of mercy.
Your own life showed God to us.
We pray for ourselves and for our whole world,
that you would lead us deeper into understanding
who you are and how we should live in the world.
Let your grace overcome any pride in our hearts
and keep us open to your saving word
whispered in the very centre of our being.