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John 11:45-57 [45] Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. [46] But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. [47] Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. [48] “If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” [49] And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, [50] “nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” [51] Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, [52] and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. [53] Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death. [54] Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples. [55] And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. [56] Then they sought Jesus, and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, “What do you think—that He will not come to the feast?” [57] Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him. What are the facts of the passage?:
What do those facts mean?: (Verse
49-50) -
Caiaphas is one of the more sickening characters in Scripture. His
presence demonstrates the depths to which the official end of the Jewish
religion had sunk. He was an absolute politician and not at all any kind
of spiritual man. He even gives politicians a bad name. He is manipulative
and totally self concerned. He
enters the conversation and lends a pathetic and twisted flavor to the
meeting. The conversation had been wicked enough up to this point. His
compatriots had been discussing how they could combat the effects of
Christ's miracles. Never mind the fact that these miracles demonstrated
that Jesus was indeed Who and What He said He was. Never mind that these
very miracles demonstrated God's approval
and blessing. Never mind that this was an indicator of the blessing of the
very God they professed to serve. Caiaphas
comes into this already incredibly evil conversation and lends a bizarre,
other worldly quality to the gathering. He tells them they are being
stupid about the whole matter. He means that they have an opportunity
before them to do more than just deal with the effect of His miracles.
They have before them the perfect opportunity to be rid of him entirely -
they must kill Him! If they are to survive as a nation (that is, as the
nation in which they were powerful) then He must die. All
of this in the face of the
evidence of His miracles. This is an outstanding example of the incredible
wickedness and hardness capable of the human heart. At its face it is an
incredibly wicked thing for anyone to do. This is the kind of thing the
Mafia does, not religious leaders. The plotting of another human being's
death is a horrible thing for anyone to do under any circumstances. The
horror of the matter is heightened by at least two things. First, these
are professed religious leaders. These are supposed to be men of place,
men of intelligence, men of integrity and ethics. If anyone can ever be
said to have supposedly known better, these were certainly the men! They
were supposed to be servants of the one true God. They were supposed to be
godly men; men whose lives and character should have been modified by
their contact with the holy and righteous character of God. It is
astonishing (though not entirely unsurprising) that it was not. Secondly, it is heightened by the nature of the revelation of Christ and the tremendous impact of the miracles that testified to the revelation's truth. The Word of God tells us that Jesus taught with great authority. His words carried great power and had great influence. They had the power to sway men's hearts and minds. Added to that is the incredibly powerful testimony of the miracles He did time and time again. These miracles spoke to all areas of human experience and were things that only God could do. They were public and undeniable. They were, however, ignorable. And ignore them was exactly the counsel of Caiaphas. He treats Christ as a political enemy. Now, Caiaphas had to know that Jesus was not a political enemy and that He was no threat, politically, to Rome itself or to Israel's status with Rome. The was nothing in anything Jesus ever said that could possibly be truly represented as political speech. He made no pretensions to political power and, in fact, took pains to see to it that He remained non-political. Caiaphas' decision is in the face of what he certainly knew. How do those facts apply to my life?: There are many people who make decisions in the face of knowledge to the contrary. We are capable of some astonishingly foolish behavior. We must exercise care that we conduct ourselves by knowledge and not by any other standard. What should I do in response?: |
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