John 11:45-53 – Therefore 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 the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs.If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
Jesus had just brought His friend Lazarus back to life. Lazarus, after being dead for several days, walked out of his tomb as a mummy, wrapped from head to toe in his burial cloths. (Sorry, but for the first time in my life this picture made me giggle since today is Halloween. Terrible, I know…:-))
There were many witnesses to what had just happened. So, of course, there were both believers and skeptics. Some continued to follow Jesus and others ran back to the Jewish leaders and “tattled” about what they’d just seen, knowing that these leaders weren’t fond of Jesus (to say the least) and His ministry.
And this is so interesting. They are afraid of the very thing that Jesus came to accomplish -that people would believe in Him. They don’t recognize that He is the Messiah that they’ve been waiting for. They believe that if people believe that they will lose their Jewish nation and temple. But Jesus was one of them and came not to take away, but to give. If they’d only seen Him as the God that He was, they would be eager to see people believe in Him and their fears would have been eliminated. (Side note – Earlier Jesus refers to Himself as “the temple” – John 2:19-22 – Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.)
They would end up being the ones that would destroy The Temple (Jesus’ death) and Jesus would be the one to restore it (His resurrection) and bring life, not death, to their nation and the world.
I love how the high priest, unknowingly, prophesied about what would happen – that this one man would die for the entire nation. He thought that Jesus’ death would save their nation by ridding them of the problem. But it was Jesus’ death AND resurrection that saved not only their nation, but the world.
Also fascinating is the fact that not even Jesus’ closest friends understood the true purpose of His death and tried to prevent His arrest. Peter cut off a guy’s ear, in fact.
So here is Jesus, He and His mission misunderstood by both His friends and His enemies. All He wanted was to love and save the world. He knew the cost. He knew how illogical the whole thing looked and seemed. And He did it for us any way. Even though we wouldn’t understand. Even though some of us wouldn’t believe. Even though the payment was His dignity, His innocence, His reputation and His life. Because He wanted once and FOR ALL to offer the opportunity to EVERYONE, life and a love relationship with God. The cost was great and He paid every cent needed at His own expense.
John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 3:17 – For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Romans 5: 18-19 – Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
