May 17 - The Needs of the Many

May 17 – The Needs of the Many

Many of the Jews therefore, 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.

Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him. (John 11:45-57)

Spock said at the end of Start Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”  Isn’t it interesting to find ancient biblical text showing up in contemporary science fiction?  Caiaphas set the stage two thousand years ago, didn’t he!

We see evil in the character of Caiaphas and it is a little disturbing to recognize that he was balancing the fate of an entire nation against the fate of one man. 

If you think about that a little more deeply, it is also interesting to see that Caiaphas recognized how one man could affect the entirety of the nation of Israel.  But because he was also concerned with his own power struggle and saw that Jesus could set the path of the world on a course which would eliminate him as its leader, he made a decision to eliminate him.

He justified his behavior to the ruling council, but something interesting happened.  Instead of rescuing his nation and establishing his own rule over them, he destroyed the one man who could have saved them.

This isn’t a bad lesson for us today.  We work so hard to keep the world moving around us the way that we recognize.  We operate from the confines of our very narrow minds.  It is easier to say no to something that might be a bit outside our box and might change things radically than it is to embrace something new.  We justify our decisions and then sit in our place ready to fight off anyone who attempts to bring change.

Jesus Christ didn’t make it easy on the leaders of Israel.  He challenged them and He continues to challenge us. So … do we act like Caiaphas when He calls us to be or do something quite differently than our status quo?  Do we fight His call with everything we have or do we respond like the twelve disciples and follow Him?