YOU are up for sale: at what price?

Now when it was early morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred against Jesus in order to put him to death. And after tying him up, they led him away and gave him over to Pilate the governor. Then when Judas, the one who had given him over, saw that he had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by giving over innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” And throwing the silver coins into the temple he departed. And he went away and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver coins and said, “It is not permitted to put them into the temple treasury, because it is the price of blood.” And after conferring, they purchased with them the field of the potter, as burial for strangers. (For this reason, that field has been called the Field of Blood until today.) Then what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, who said, “And they took the thirty silver coins, the price of the one who had been priced, on whom a 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: 1-10

Beneath the radar systems of Jersey – and therefore unseen by many of us – people are being bought and sold. Wikipedia defines human trafficking as ‘the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others.’ Let’s imagine that human traffickers got hold of you. What price would they be asking for you when they put you up for sale? How would that compare with the price paid for you in Jersey’s employment market? And with the price which you would place upon yourself? You’re worth more to yourself than to anybody else, aren’t you?
As you read this today the US national leaders continue to publish prices for the lives of named individuals. For some the price under the Rewards for Justice scheme is $25 million. Lower prices for other individuals …….	‘Whatever else is or is not true, this one thing is certain – humans are not what they were meant to be.’ (G K Chesterton, English writer, 1874-1936)
In a similar way – see bold above – the Jerusalem national leaders fixed a price for the life of Jesus in AD 30. Judas took up the offer of the ‘Reward for Justice’ and was paid in advance. The price of Jesus was 30 silver coins – a price mutually agreed without reference to Jesus….. As the extract in bold above from Matthew’s biography of Jesus discloses, Judas, seeing the condemned Jesus “regretted what he had done”. He tried to return the price to those who had paid him because the price was now clearly wrong because Jesus was “innocent blood”. The Jerusalem national leaders refused to accept the return of the price. “They said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”” If they had accepted the price, they would, by doing so, be receiving the price themselves. They were happy to pay the price but not to be paid it. They must remain clean. Judas had no choice but to throw down the money – the price of blood - in the temple - and go away and kill himself. But a new dilemma has arisen for the national leaders: what to do with the 30 silver coins – the price of blood. The national religious and political leaders confer. A collective decision is no one person’s responsibility. Amazingly they all agree on a course of action which was set down in their national archives around 600 years earlier. Then what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, who said, “And they took the thirty silver coins, the price of the one who had been priced, on whom a price had been set by the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, just as the Lord directed me.”
The price of Jesus’ blood, the price set by the Jerusalem establishment, would, from that time onwards, benefit strangers. The price bought the field – Greek agros – the productive field belonging to the AD 30 Jerusalem potter. Around 600 BC Jeremiah wrote about the Lord God being like the potter who re-makes human clay into something of much greater price.	‘Man, made in the image of God, has a purpose – to be in relationship to God, who is there. Man forgets his purpose and thus he forgets who he is and what life means.’ (Francis Schaeffer, theologian and philosopher, 1912-1984)
In Jersey today, some dying strangers have set a very different price on Jesus. Each one knows Jesus to be beyond price because he paid their price – their “burial” price. In many ways this is what Richard Syvret has to face up to at Lent. He sees the price of his blood. What should he do? Give up chocolate for 40 days?

Sinner Syvret

Email this newsletter to a friend
*All mandatory fields must be filled in
Friend`s name
Friend`s email address *
Your name
Your email address *
Message

Send comment
*All mandatory fields must be filled in
Your name *
Your email address *
Your comment *