Day 44 - What are we worth to God?

Ptolemaictetradrachmus coins

The story of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus is not a positive story, which posed me with a challenge. By habit, I prefer Bible messages with some element of hope and that could be difficult here but bear with me, I may have something. The first thing the historian inside me wondered was how much is 30 pieces of silver worth? Upon looking into it, it turns out I wasn’t the first person to wonder such a question and I spent a happy hour diving into all the research out there. Silver coins, it turns out, could have been any of these – Tyrian Shekels, Staters of Antioch, Roman Denarii or, and deep breath for this one, Ptolemaictetradrachmus. Shekels had the highest silver content at 94% and were the ones demanded for paying temple taxes, so are probably the best bet. At 14 grams of silver and a price today of £1.67 a gram, that brings the grand total to £701.40 for 30 pieces. A low total, I’m sure you’ll agree. However, as we know, the cost of items at the time of this passage and today are very different. These 30 pieces were used, either by Judas or the Temple officials, depending on the Gospel you choose, to purchase a field at a cost equivalent today to around £25,000 or at the time, half a year’s wages.

Either way, it was much more than the pure bullion value and poses an interesting question - what is our faith worth to us? The instinctive reaction is to say priceless. Something as big as faith, all it does and gives to us, surely you can’t put a price on such a thing. And I agree whole-heartedly. There we go. End of article. Or maybe not.

Equally interesting is to flip the question – what are we worth to God? And therein lies the rub, because we are also priceless to God. We are told that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). What a priceless gift is that?! To be given, through the sacrifice of the Son, the promise of eternal life with God. The gadgets, cars and weekly groceries we spend money on simply pale in comparison.

As we remember Maundy Thursday, we are reminded not only of Jesus’s sacrifice but also of his life. What value would the blindman put on his sight, the paralysed on movement, the ill on their health? And God gifts all this freely with his Son, not only a sacrifice but an ever-present gift to humanity. Judas may only have put a value of 30 silver pieces on God’s gift to him, but I hazard to guess we would say there is not enough silver, nor gold, nor any material at all on Earth worth turning away from God for. And I think Judas realised this. He is overcome with guilt and remorse as soon as he realises that Jesus will be put to death and attempts to atone for what he has done by giving up the money. And what do the people at the Temple say? “Nope. Blood money. Not for us. What’s that? You feel guilty. Sounds like a ‘you’ problem”.

The story of Judas shows us that those who wish to turn us away from God never have our best interests in their hearts, seen in the way the Temple leaders discard Judas as soon as he has fulfilled his job. So maybe, whilst not a positive story, it is a story of warning and of hope – showing us that the God we believe in will always have our best interests at heart. And so, as God is priceless to us, we are priceless to God. I pray we never forget that.

Harry Booton