Matthew 26:14-16

Matthew 26:14-16

[14] Then  one  of the twelve,  called  Judas  Iscariot,  went  unto  the chief priests,  [15] And said  unto them, What  will ye  give  and  I will deliver  him  And  they covenanted  with him  for thirty  pieces of silver.  [16] And  from  that time  he sought  opportunity  to  betray  him. 

What does Matthew 26:14-16 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Here the word "then" probably identifies a logical connection with what preceded. [1] Evidently Judas made these plans the same day that Jesus predicted His crucifixion in two days, namely, on Wednesday ( Matthew 26:1-5). None of the evangelists recorded Judas" motives for betraying Jesus, but Judas may have taken offense at Jesus" rebuke on the previous Saturday evening ( Matthew 26:10-13). Perhaps the fact that Jesus permitted Mary"s extravagant act without rebuke convinced him that Jesus was not the Messiah. [2] This may have been part of his motivation. The chief priests were the clerical leaders of Israel. They were able to do Jesus in.
The30 pieces of silver they agreed to pay Judas were a paltry sum and fulfilled Zechariah 11:12. The amount constituted a month"s wages, if the silver pieces were denarii, which seems likely. [3] Matthew did not refer to this as a fulfillment of prophecy here, but he did later in Matthew 27:9-10. Nevertheless he was careful to make the verbal correspondence with the Zechariah passage close here. [4] This was the price an Israelite had to pay his neighbor if his ox accidentally gored his neighbor"s slave to death ( Exodus 21:32). This small amount of money shows the light esteem with which the chief priests and Judas regarded Jesus (cf. Isaiah 53:3).
". . . tragically, Judas, in selling his services to the chief priests to betray Jesus, unwittingly acts in a manner that is the exact opposite of "servanthood": Jesus is the servant par excellence, for he delivers himself to death in order that others might gain life; by contrast, Judas delivers Jesus to death in order that he might gain advantage for himself ..." [5]