What’s It Worth?

Zechariah 11:7-13

I did not grow up in a church that did this. I had never seen it. And when I heard imposition of ashes, I only had a vague thought of, I think that’s something Catholic people do, but that’s as much as I knew. Well, one of our members in Tennessee, her name was Jennifer, she’s in heaven now, really, really, really wanted to do the imposition of ashes. And I was dragging my feet. I didn’t wanna do it. But she was really involved with the congregation. She really wanted to do it. And we really couldn’t come up with a good reason to not do it. And so finally we said to her, “Okay, we’ll try it once and see how it goes. And if it doesn’t work out, at least we’ve tried.” Suffice it to say, I was hooked. There’s something about, for me personally, as a believer in Jesus, having somebody look me in the eye and say to me, “Dust you are, to dust you will return.” Man, what a reminder for me of my mortality. What a reminder for me of my sinfulness. What a reminder for me of how desperately I need Jesus. For me as a pastor, having the chance to look at each one of you, to make that sign of the cross on you, and to say, “Dust you are, to dust you’ll return.” It is amazing how that just heightens my sense of the criticalness of what we are doing as believers. Every one of us who’s here is gonna die, right? What does every one of us here need? Jesus. And at the end of the day, it’s all we need is Jesus. And as we look at the world around us, what is it that the world ultimately needs? The world needs Jesus. And understanding that dust we are into dust, we will return to Jesus. And knowing that we are into dust, we will return. Doesn’t that just say to us, Jesus is everything we want and need, yes? It just does. And so I love this night. I realize that some of you may feel weird about it. I’m fine with that, I get it. I did too the first time that I did. It’s like, “Oh, I don’t know.” (audience chattering) But I’ve come to really appreciate it for the theology that’s behind it. What is Jesus worth? Is the question that’s in front of us tonight. And it’s of course suggested by the Zechariah text. 30 pieces of silver, the handsome price at which they priced me. The text begins, it’s maybe Zechariah talking about his own shepherding ministry. Or maybe it’s all Jesus, there’s argument about that. But you absolutely clearly see if it is Zechariah talking about his own ministry to some extent, it very clearly comes to be about Jesus’ ministry. It just does. And God wanted to bring his people favor. And God wanted to bring his people union. But can you imagine? Many of the people, in fact, most of the people at the time of Jesus didn’t want him. They grew weary of him. In fact, the flock even detested him, we’re told. Can you imagine detesting Jesus? But can you hear it in the jealousy of the religious leaders? Can you hear it in the shouts of crucify him, crucify him? Yeah, I think we can hear it. And most shockingly, somewhat mind-blowingly, we see it in one of Jesus’ own 12 in Judas. One of the huge questions that the Bible just doesn’t answer is what happened with Judas? How could this happen? That one of Jesus’ own inner circle ends up selling him. You think of the things that Judas saw. He saw Jesus feed the 5,000. He saw Jesus walking on water. He saw Jesus still the storm. He saw Jesus heal blind people. How many times did Judas hear Jesus preach? Who knows, teach, who knows? When the 12 and the 72 were sent out to preach, who knows? Who knows? When the 12 and the 72 were sent out to prepare the way for Jesus, we’re told that they were given ability to do miracles. We assume Judas was given that ability and that Judas was able to do miracles. We’re also told that Judas was a thief. He was in charge of the treasury. Had Jesus put him into that position? If so, what an honor. Had the other disciples elected him to that position? If so, again, what an honor. But he began helping himself to the money that was in the treasury. He began pocketing it. And apparently, money became worth much more to him than Jesus. And so he agrees with the religious leaders to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah had prophesied it, frames it apparently in the context of Zechariah’s ministry. Am I worth any pay? Here’s 30 pieces of silver. Throw it into the temple to the potter. And this is where I have to unload some Hebrew geekiness on ya. And I just think this is so cool. I hope you guys do too. That word potter, it’s the exact same word that’s used in Genesis chapter two, verse seven, when God formed Adam. The Hebrew word means to shape like a potter. That God took that dart from the ground, that dust from the ground, and God formed it into the first man. What honor that human beings were formed by God himself, hands on. God didn’t just say, “Let there be.” No, he shaped, he formed. What honor is ours to be humans? And oh, how we humans blew it. The potter shapes perfect pottery. And what does perfect pottery do? The pottery rebels against the potter. In what universe does the pottery rebel against the potter who made it? That doesn’t happen. But it happened. And of course, what should have happened at that point had God treated us fairly, is God would have taken the pottery and smashed it to smithereens and sent us humans to hell forever. God didn’t do that. Instead, what the potter, God, chooses to do is he chooses to become pottery. He chooses to become dust and ashes. And can you believe it? A whole bunch of the pottery rejects the potter who’s become pottery. Really? Really? And is willing to sell the potter for 30 pieces of silver. Oh, but then what happened? When Judas sees that Jesus was condemned, all of a sudden, those 30 pieces of silver start burning a hole in Judas’s head and in Judas’s heart. And that money, which had seemed so important to him earlier, now feels like this noose around his neck. And he goes to the temple, that Hebrew in the text is the house of the Lord. Why house? It’s because why not temple of the Lord? It’s house of the Lord. Why? Because it was God wanting to emphasize this was a relationship place. This was your place of peace. This was the place where God was talking to you about the relationship that you had with him that God made his dwelling among his people. And Judas goes to that house of the Lord, and he says, “I’ve sinned for I’ve betrayed innocent blood.” And the answer of the religious leaders is stone cold. What is that to us? You see to it, they say to him. So much for peace. And Judas takes that 30 pieces of silver and throws it into the temple area. And what has to be one of the most shockingly brazen acts of hypocrisy, the religious leaders say, “Oh, we can’t put this into the treasury because it’s blood money.” Wait, what? You’re okay with paying the money so that you could take an innocent man and get him murdered, but you wouldn’t dare put it back in the treasury? Really? Really. So what do they do? They use it to buy the potter’s field. As a burial place for dust and ashes. So trace it through. The potter, God, makes perfect pottery. Perfect pottery rebels against the potter. He can rescue the other pottery. Some of the pottery rejects him, sells him, and the money that is used to sell him is given to the potter. And what does it all say to you and me? One of the things it says to you and me is, oh my goodness, are we human beings sinful. We see rebellion in us humans. We see greed in us humans. We see hypocrisy in us humans. And it’s in all of us, and it’s in each of us. How rightly we have earned dust, you are to dust you will return. My seminary professor put it this way, boys, you’re dirt plus the breath of God, and when God chooses to breathe in, you’ll go back to being dirt. But what does that make Jesus worth? Oh my. That makes Jesus worth everything. Because Jesus is the only one who can and did win forgiveness for you and me. Jesus is the only one who can and did wash the guilt away. Jesus is the only one who can and does and will breathe life into you and me, a new and a fresh. Dust you are to dust you will return does not have the final word. Perhaps the final word is to life you will return because Jesus is worth everything. Amen. And Amen.