Does It Go Both Ways?

I was reading this passage this morning, and something jumped out at me. See if you can pick it up.

Matthew 27:3-7 ~ Judas, the one who had given Jesus to his enemies, saw that they had decided to kill Jesus. Then he was very sorry for what he had done. So he took the thirty silver coins back to the priests and the leaders, saying, “I sinned; I handed over to you an innocent man.”
The leaders answered, “What is that to us? That’s your problem, not ours.”
So Judas threw the money into the Temple. Then he went off and hanged himself.
The leading priests picked up the silver coins in the Temple and said, “Our law does not allow us to keep this money with the Temple money, because it has paid for a man’s death.” So they decided to use the coins to buy Potter’s Field as a place to bury strangers who died in Jerusalem. (NCV)

Do you see it? I wonder how some people can have two distinctly opposing stances on the same issue and somehow reconcile it in their minds. You have a group of people who believe it is okay to take money from the Temple to pay someone for murder, but they don't think it's okay to take that same money back after the murder. So, the money's not tainted when you want to use it for murder, only after the murder's been done? Wait, that doesn't work either, Judas brought the money back before Jesus died. Hm...

If this is how people of faith operate, no wonder outsiders think they are hypocrites and don't want anything to do with it. We need to do what we can to be lining our faith up with our actions. After all, people can't see our hearts, only the reflection of our heart in our actions.

T