So the chief priests and the Pharisees called the Sanhedrin Council.
Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at
all nor do you see clearly what you need. It is better to have one man die for the people than
to let the whole nation be destroyed.” In saying this Caiaphas did not speak for himself, but
being High Priest that year, he foretold as a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation, and
not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the scattered children of God. So, from that
day on, they were determined to kill him.
Because of this, Jesus no longer moved about freely among the Jews. He withdrew instead
to the country near the wilderness and stayed with his disciples in a town called Ephraim.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand and people from everywhere were coming to
Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.
Reflect
For some reason, Caiaphas feels very familiar. He is much like political and business leaders
that we might see in the pages of our daily newspaper or on our television screens. He finds
it acceptable to let an innocent man die to protect his interests. After all, if Rome destroyed
Israel, which they did forty years after Jesus’ death, the chief priests would lose their power
and influence.
It’s easy to scapegoat people and treat them as expendable, important only as far as they
serve our interests. When people are hurt by our efforts to secure our interests, we treat them
as collateral damage. We judge our wins and losses without reckoning the losses suffered by
the poor and the vulnerable. The poor, the disabled, the unborn, the imprisoned, the lonely are
forgotten or discounted if they stand in the way of our wants and needs. May God forgive
us for the times we have said, “It is better that one person die than for me to have less,
than to let me face risk, than to require that I change my life.”
© Copyright Bible Diary 2023