The parallels are Mark 15:1-5 and Luke 23:1-5. We learn that the Sanhedrin, with the support of the priestly leadership and judges, waited until dawn so that it was just barely legitimate that they convene and declare Jesus worthy of death. The next step was to bring Him before Pilate for a matching Roman judgment.
It’s quite possible that Judas assumed Jesus and His disciples would rise up in divine power and crush the ruling regime. Or perhaps he expected that Jesus would face only a beating, perhaps. Instead, Jesus allowed Himself to be led away bound to Pilate. Matthew alone tells us that Judas was shaken by regret at this scene. He attempted to return the bribe, confessing that he had betrayed an innocent man. The people who paid him insisted that was his problem now.
So Judas threw the silver on the floor of the Temple near the collection box from which he was paid, then went somewhere and hanged himself. The representatives of the ruling council picked up the scattered silver coins, and piously noted that it was against their policy to receive blood money into the Temple treasury, so they used it for charity. They bought an empty lot near the city that had been used for the production of pottery in the past. It was designated a place to bury Gentiles who died in the city.
The story of how it was bought leaked out, and it gained the notorious nickname as the “Field of Blood”.
We note that Matthew quoted Zechariah 11 but references Jeremiah. This appears to be an obscure rabbinical tradition for referring to sections of the Scriptures by the name of the first book in the section. The passage in Zechariah prophesies that God, faced with the refusal of the ruling class of Israel to keep the intent of the Covenant, would be forced to declare the Covenant dissolved. Thus, this whole scene reeks of political maneuvering that completely ignores Covenant justice, yet appears to abide by the words of the Law. It was the problem Zechariah was addressing.
The passage in Zechariah includes a lot of symbolic acts that everyone knew was meant to convey a prophetic message. He took on the job of fattening some sheep for ritual slaughter, symbolizing how the nation’s leadership regarded their own people. He dismissed the hired shepherds, symbolizing God dismissing the people He blessed with ruling power. It included Zechariah getting paid 30 pieces of silver for watching this flock of sheep; it as the price of a slave. The Lord told him to take that “princely sum” (sarcasm) and give it to the potter. Zechariah’s response was dramatically tossing it on the floor of the Temple as a designated offering to pay for the pottery used in the rituals. It was the most mundane use imaginable, and duly symbolizes just how much the Jewish ruling class of both Zechariah’s and Jesus’ day valued their own nation as their divine inheritance.
The shepherds of the nation, the Sanhedrin, had valued Jesus as a cheap common criminal, and never bothered to address any part of His prophetic claims. They seemed to despise Him precisely because He cared about the common people. Instead of hearing out His claim to be the Messiah, of the royal House of David, they treated Him as a threat to their position.
Thus, they led Jesus before a Gentile magistrate who understood even less what it was all about than they themselves did. Again, it seems rather obvious that Pilate had been wheedled into going along with this plan to get rid of another terrorist, for this is precisely what he expected Jesus to be.
Pilate was in town precisely because Jewish festivals seemed to be when keeping the Pax Romana taxed him the hardest. He normally stayed in the Roman villa at Caesarea on the coast, but visited Jerusalem during high holy days so he could be on hand to respond more quickly to the increasingly common disturbances that came with those holidays, while at the same time pretending to honor the Jewish celebrations.
This kind of background tension was precisely the reason the Sanhedrin claimed Jesus deserved execution. They presented Him as someone claiming to be the King of the Jews. Pilate asked Jesus if that was His claim. Jesus responded with a turn of phrase that meant roughly, “Sure, whatever you say.” This was not what Pilate agreed to, so he announced (Luke tells us) that he was not impressed with this accusation. If they couldn’t bring a more blatantly rebellious Jewish patriot, the deal was off. This guy was clearly just a patsy.
So, the ruling council lined up to list their accusations of how Jesus agitated for the overthrow of the Jewish and Roman governments. Jesus seemed to have no real interest in the whole show. He appeared to be someone resigned to His fate, and offered no objection when given the chance under Roman procedures. Pilate was very impressed with how Jesus just shrugged it off. It was obvious this was a big put on, and that whatever reason the Jewish leaders had for this big show, it was no concern of Rome.
