Many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees
convened the Sanhedrin and said,
“What are we going to do?
This man is performing many signs.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,
and the Romans will come
and take away both our land and our nation.”
But one of them, Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year, said to them,
“You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you
that one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish.”
He did not say this on his own,
but since he was high priest for that year,
he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
and not only for the nation,
but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.
So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews,
but he left for the region near the desert,
to a town called Ephraim,
and there he remained with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near,
and many went up from the country to Jerusalem
before Passover to purify themselves.
They looked for Jesus and said to one another
as they were in the temple area, “What do you think?
That he will not come to the feast?”
Money and power…, this is what most betrayals come down too. You have things, or have obtained power, and don’t want to lose it, let alone give it away. In the old testament the jews asked for a king many times, and over and over the Lord said no, you don’t want that. Kings will persecute you, and subject you to taxes, and other intolerable things. So, instead God asked them trust in Him and look to Him as their King. But over and over the jews would not relent. They yearned to be like the other people of the world with a powerful king and a great kingdom.
What they did not understand was that was exactly what God was offering them…, He told them: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” The difference was that Jesus would be the great high king, and the kingdom would be that of heaven. But the jews wanted an earthly kingdom. And they wanted Earthly power. This is what they asked for and ultimately got with Saul. But the kings all ultimately failed them. The kings were eventually all killed and their kingdom was concurred, one after another by pagan rulers.
This is also what they were looking for in the time of Jesus. They yearned for the messiah, a king that would restore their kingdom and save them from Roman persecution. The power that their earthly kingdom had given them in the past was intoxicating. It gave them prestige, and adulation, and they deeply yearned for that time to return.
But Jesus was not the king or messiah that they were looking for. He was in fact an obstacle to the jews hopes & dreams and He actually stood to dismantle all of those previous kings and kingdoms, and ultimately restore the people of this world to the Father, and establish a new kingdom in Heaven. From the perspective of the jews, if Jesus was actually who He said He was then they would have to abandon their earthly kingdom and their earthly power, and look to Him to be their king, and look to heaven for their kingdom. This was a risk that they were unwilling to take. If Jesus was an imposter, or a false prophet, then He would stand in conflict with the roman law, and that would threaten even the little power and prestige that they were desperately hanging onto. From their earthly point of view the only response was to remove this threat (Jesus) from their midst completely.
But there was another way. Total trust in Jesus, giving him everything, and having the faith that God would make all things good for those who love Him. The jews could not do this, I reckon most of us, even today, could not do this. Many of us firmly live by the idea that “A bird in the hand… is worth more than two in the bush.” But we are the called to something higher than simple practicality. Jesus wants us to trust him completely, to believe in Him with total faith, and to serve Him humbly. This is easy to say but very hard to do, but we must do it. The Kings of old, have and will always fail us, but the great high king, Jesus Christ will never fail you. Believe that, trust that, and live your life humbly with that as your foremost principle, and you find your way into eternity with Him, in that great Kingdom of Heaven.
