John
11:45-56
Many
of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in
him, but some of them went to tell the Pharisees what Jesus had done. Then the
chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. ‘Here is this man working all
these signs’ they said ‘and what action are we taking? If we let him go on in
this way everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy
the Holy Place and our nation.’ One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that
year, said, ‘You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to
see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole
nation to be destroyed.’ He did not speak in his own person, it was as high
priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation – and
not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children
of God. From that day they were determined to kill him. So Jesus no longer went
about openly among the Jews, but left the district for a town called Ephraim,
in the country bordering on the desert, and stayed there with his disciples.
The Jewish Passover drew near, and many of the country people who had gone up
to Jerusalem to purify themselves looked out for Jesus, saying to one another
as they stood about in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Will he come to the
festival or not?’
Food
for thought!
Did
you ever wonder why Jesus was killed by his own people? Well, it was in order
for the religious authorities of the time (Pharisees and Sadducees) to hold on
to their political and social power, their prestige. It was out of fear. What
they feared was that Jesus might gain a following far greater than they enjoyed
and raise a disturbance against the civil government. If Jesus were to be the
cause of civil disorder, the civil government in Rome would intervene and
dismiss the religious authorities from their positions of authority. Fear
is the great human curse, that destroys more lives, makes more people unhappy
and unsuccessful; fear-thoughts are malignant forces within us poisoning the
very sources of life, destroying lives, like it did with Jesus.
It
never even occurred to them to ask whether Jesus was right or wrong. Their only
question was: "What effect will this have on our ease and comfort and authority?"
They judged Jesus, not in the light of principle but in the light of their own
career. Sometimes we are that mean; we set our own interests before the other's
interests; we look at and judge others in light of our own interests; as long as
our interests are served, we don't mind at all about what the other person goes
through. Things have not changed much!
So
the Sadducees insisted that Jesus must be eliminated or the Romans would come
and take their authority away. Then Caiaphas, the High Priest, made his
two-edged statement: "You do not seem to have grasped the situation at
all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than
for the whole nation to be destroyed." What did Caiaphas mean by these
words?
Caiaphas
meant that it was better that Jesus should die than that there should be
trouble with the many; it is good for one to suffer and save the many. It was
true that Jesus must die to save the nation. That was true--but not in the way
that Caiaphas meant. It was true in a far greater and more wonderful way. God
can speak through the most unlikely people; sometimes he sends his message
through a man without the man being aware; he can use even the words of bad
men, like on this occasion. Be it as it may, Jesus was to die for many people
throughout the world. To him be glory and praise and majesty, for ever and
ever. Amen.
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