Yesterday we saw how Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. While it’s easy to focus on the betrayal itself, even the value placed on Christ’s life was given long before He was born. And when we see what 30 pieces of silver is actually worth, we’ll be shocked at how little value was placed on our priceless Messiah.
Christ in the Old Testament
And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. (Zechariah 11:12-13)
In Zechariah 11:4-17, this minor prophet becomes a type of Christ – a picture of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament. In this case, Zechariah acts as a shepherd to a “doomed flock” who had completely rejected their God and were following false shepherds. In the midst of pronouncing judgment on Israel, Jeremiah washes his hands of this rebellious people and asks them to give the prophet of the Lord what they think he’s worth. Their response? 30 pieces of silver.
That was the price of a bargain-basement slave.
God’s response is dripping with sarcasm as He tells the prophet to take this “magnificent price” and throw it to the potter. Though we aren’t sure why God has him do this, it may be because the potter would smelt it down and create an idol, further showing how far Israel’s heart was from their God.
This whole scene is tragic. Through His messenger, God has allowed Israel to break their ties to Him for a time. They’ve proven that they have little concern for the chosen one of God, and they show this by placing the lowest possible value on him.
Fulfilled in the New Testament
Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:14–15)
Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders (Matthew 27:3)
Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the One whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; and they gave them for the Potter’s Field, just as the Lord directed me.” (Matthew 27:9-10)
Keeping with the tradition of using a major prophet to quote a minor one, Matthew points out that 30 silver pieces going to a potter is a fulfillment of the Old Testament passage we just discussed in Zechariah as well as what we see in Jeremiah 19:1-4. While this prophecy shows us the reality of who Christ truly is, it also tells us something about God’s involvement in history.
When God directed Zechariah to take on the role of a shepherd who was despised by his people, God was asking him to act out the future life of Jesus Christ. Like Zecharaiah, our Savior was hated, mistreated, and gotten rid of for the lowest value that could be placed on a human being. God had a specific message in giving the silver to the potter, but He also knew that this would have far greatest significance.
It can be tempting to think of Christ’s death as God’s last-ditch effort after all His other attempts had failed. Yet as we look at specific fulfillments from Old Testament prophets, we see that all of history has been pointing to God’s one and only plan – a perfect Messiah who would come to pay for the sins of His people.
As we see how the events of Christ’s life were the fulfillment of the Old Testament, we can be in awe of how the completion of God’s plan was never in doubt. Events involving 30 pieces of silver that happened centuries apart weren’t just coincidences, but were instead another piece of evidence that Christ was the Messiah the world had been waiting for. Nothing about God’s will is left up to chance, and we can rest in that for every moment of our lives.
