The Grander Scheme

The Grander Scheme

John 11:45-53, NIV

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47Then 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. 48If 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.” 49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” 51He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

Setting the Scene

After Lazarus’s resurrection, “many . . . believed in” Jesus, but certainly not all. Some saw and reported the event as an action worthy of suspicion and perhaps condemnation.

As John describes it, the problem for those who rejected Jesus wasn’t that they disbelieved the miracles; the problem was that their view of reality included fears, desires, and obstacles they assumed were somehow greater than someone’s ability to work miracles. The perspective of the negative conclusion in 11:47-48 states the issue exactly and gets the conclusion exactly wrong: “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’” (NIV). They feared for their “temple” (their place of distinction) and their “nation.”

John provides us with Caiaphas’s pronouncement and then highlights the stunning hidden prophecy it stated. The high priest was acting as a practical power broker, equating one man’s life with beneficial collateral damage. He did not realize he was verbalizing the very decision God had made regarding the fate of humanity. The prophetic irony in Caiaphas’s statement makes the case for substitutionary sacrifice—it really was better in God’s grander scheme that Jesus’ solitary, innocent, willing death would spare Israel and God’s scattered children from destruction and unite them as one. We were included in the high priest’s prophecy. The evil plot against Jesus turned out to accomplish part of God’s plan for our salvation.

Getting Personal

What practices have you found most beneficial in staying awake and alert to the wonders of a God-centered life?

How does talking about Jesus with others affect your sense of intimacy with him?

God’s grander scheme is neither advanced by our deliberate efforts nor delayed by our shortsighted plans. His will is ultimately accomplished. But the benefits we experience are more immediate and positive when we are seeking to cooperate fully with what God wants to do.

Talking to God

Ask God to teach you again today the harmony between living in obedience to him and desiring to see his will be done. Pray that you will always stay open to doing his will.