John 11:45–53
Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.
It’s Dirty Politics
A Reflection by Tom Lewis, MDiv
This is all dirty politics. It begins with some of the Judeans ratting out Jesus. What are we to do when Jesus is doing many signs. If he does enough signs, people will start to think he’s a god. The portrait Jesus paints of himself is threatening the status quo, so there is a back room meeting between the Pharisees, who are concerned only with preserving their way of life, and the High Priest, who is appointed by the Romans. The Pharisees and the High Priest, who call together the Sanhedrin – a purely political body – want to preserve themselves and their way of life.
They plot to kill Jesus, so that one person can die and keep the Romans from smashing their comfortable society. John’s gospel, the only one that mentions the Roman occupation, knows the true political threat to their existence. This political system will sacrifice Jesus without understanding the first thing of his true sacrifice—the death he goes to willingly—not to save Judea, but to save humanity, the People of God.
Even with all that political might, in the end, it is the Romans who by their methods of torture, save the world. Save us.
There is no Palm Sunday in John. Jesus uses a donkey as a throne from which to preach to the people. Tomorrow, we look at another gospel’s treatment of Palm Sunday, but it is always political. The Palm branch is a symbol of ruthless power, which is what the people want in Jesus. They get the opposite, and it’s a good thing.