Mat 26:8-9, Luk 8:30 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 8. They had indignation . John says that Judas expressed indignation. Probably some of the others felt indignation, but Judas only gave vent to his feelings. The reason why Judas was indignant was that he had the bag , ( ;) i.e., the purse , or repository of articles given to the disciples and to the Saviour. He was a thief; and was in the habit, it seems, of taking out and putting to his own use what was put in for them in common. The leading trait of Judas' character was avarice ; and no opportunity was suffered to pass without attempting by base and wicked means, to make money. In his example, an avaricious man may learn the true nature and the effect of that grovelling and wicked passion. It led him to commit the enormous crime of betraying his Lord to death; and it will always lead its possessor to guilt. No small part of the sins of the men of the world can be traced to avarice; and many and many a time since the days of Judas has the Lord Jesus been betrayed among his professed friends by the same base propensity. Is this waste . This loss or destruction of property. They could see no use in it, and they therefore supposed it was lost.

Matthew 26:8-9

Verse 8. They had indignation. John says that Judas expressed indignation. Probably some of the others felt indignation, but Judas only gave vent to his feelings. The reason why Judas was indignant was that he had the bag, (Jn 12:6;) i.e., the purse, or repository of articles given to the disciples and to the Saviour. He was a thief; and was in the habit, it seems, of taking out and putting to his own use what was put in for them in common. The leading trait of Judas' character was avarice; and no opportunity was suffered to pass without attempting by base and wicked means, to make money. In his example, an avaricious man may learn the true nature and the effect of that grovelling and wicked passion. It led him to commit the enormous crime of betraying his Lord to death; and it will always lead its possessor to guilt. No small part of the sins of the men of the world can be traced to avarice; and many and many a time since the days of Judas has the Lord Jesus been betrayed among his professed friends by the same base propensity.

Is this waste. This loss or destruction of property. They could see no use in it, and they therefore supposed it was lost. Verse 9. Sold for much. Mark and John say for 300 pence; that is, for about 40 dollars, [about � 9.] This, to them, was a large sum. Mark says, they murmured against her. There was also an implied murmuring against the Saviour for suffering it to be done. The murmuring was, however, without cause. It was the property of Mary. She had a right to dispose of it as she pleased, answerable not to them, but to God. They had no right over it, and no cause of complaint ff it had been wasted. So Christians now are at liberty to dispose of their property as they please, either in distributing the Bible, in supporting the gospel, in sending it to heathen nations, or in aiding the poor. The world, like Judas, esteems it to be wasted. Like Judas, they are indignant. They say it might be disposed of in a better way. Yet, like Judas, they are interfering in that which concerns them not. Like other men, Christians have a right to dispose of their property as they please, answerable only to God. And though an avaricious world esteems it to be waste, yet if their Lord commands it, it will be found to be the only way in which it was right for them to dispose of that property, and will be found not to have been in vain.

Matthew 26:8-9

Luke 8:30