Matthew 27:4

Matthew 27:4

(with Luke 23:34 )

Self and Christ.

I. Some charges require proof; others are patent, going before unto judgment. The charge of selfishness as a crime of humanity is of the latter kind. To whom need it be proved? As a crime of the race, all plead guilty to it. It is only when we come close home, and charge it upon the man, the separate individual man, that we so much as need a witness. There are forms of selfishness so draped and veiled as to be almost indiscernible. (1) There is a selfishness of earnestness. The man has an end in view, and through quicksands of peril, and over mountains of difficulty, he will reach it or die. The end is a good end; if personal, at least honourable; it may be patriotic; it may be philanthropic; it may be religious. And yet, in his way to it the very earnestness of the aim may make him harsh, narrow, bitter, overbearing, contemptuous. (2) There is a selfishness of affection. Sometimes the very power of loving, beautiful in itself and Godlike, becomes a snare. Viewed in its aspect towards a third person, it may be selfishness; in its aspect towards God, a giving to the creature of affections formed for the Creator. (3) The selfishness of sin. These men who repudiated all share or concern in the misery of Judas, were men who had not only instigated but hired his treachery. Never expect from the accomplice, from the companion of your sin, a burst of hearty natural sympathy, when that sin finds you out.

II. Christ is unselfishness. To see Him, to be united to Him, to be one with Him and thus it is to be a Christian is to be like Him in His unselfishness.

C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 101.

References: Matthew 27:4-24 . Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 173.Matthew 27:5 . A. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 348; G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel, p. 252.