I just wanted to share here what Buchan (a fan of the painting) says about it;
"...in this flash of recognition... [Rembrandt] ...saw into the marrow of history; that the divine in man is dead beyond all resurrection; that there is nothing left to us but a few coins on a dusty floor and our bestial natures, and that in every monetary transaction, wholesale and retail, Christ is re-crucified."
For Buchan, this painting, more than any other is prescient of the coming of modernity.