The Decision to Kill Jesus

Lesson #184

At the end of our last lesson, we were told that some of the Jews “went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.” “So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”” (John 11:47 – 48 ESV). The religious leaders come together and prove that they are controlled by the powers of darkness by what they say. They confess that Jesus performs many signs that demonstrate his divine power, but they do not accept the fact that God is in their midst and desires to reveal great and marvelous things to them. They do not consider what God wants to accomplish in and through them, but instead they think of the potential loss of power and prestige as people believe in and follow Jesus in this new expression of religion. Clearly they are not true shepherds because they are not interested in leading people to God, but to keep them under their control. They are afraid that if people leave Judaism and establish this Christian form of worship and witness under Jesus Christ, that the Romans will come and remove their temple and control in their nation. These Jewish leaders are willing to oppose God and what he wants to accomplish in the hearts and lives of people to maintain their own position of glory. Clearly they have given up God’s call for them to represent him to the people they were asked to shepherd. They clearly are not willing to humble themselves to serve the people, as Jesus is, but to seek glory that is rightfully God’s.

As they make fools out of themselves, “. . . one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”” (John 11:49 – 50 ESV). What Jesus is doing is unconventional; it is radical. It is a behavior that is outside of their belief and their comfort zone. Their religion is neatly packages in a box with secure walls and provides them with a measure of safety. It is Jesus who has the potential of unsetting the Romans and thus their wrath against them. Since Jesus is the problem, Caiaphas presents a brilliant plan; eliminate that which has the potential of upsetting the Romans; kill Jesus. With this plan, only one person needs to die, the trouble makes, bringing the situation back to normal, thus protecting them and the people from possible destruction. This is indeed a brilliant plan as it eliminates the one they all hate so much.

Prayer

Father, I see a similar thinking with the radical Islam believers, who are convinced that Allah is the one true God, who believe Muhammad is the true prophet and teacher of Islam, and who feel threatened by Christians. Just as the Jews decided to eliminate Jesus and his threat to them, these terrorists have decided to eliminate Christians. Father, the persecution that Jesus experienced and that Christians experience today I see as a normal expression of the sinful nature of humans. The normal expression of sin is to hate God and without your intervention in our lives, I am convinced that no one has the ability on his own to come to Christ. Father, thank you for your provision, in Jesus Christ, for our salvation.