Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent - March 31, 2012
John 11:47 - 52
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.”
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
Always we find ourselves with competing interests when it comes to living a life centered in God. We hold other loyalties to be important, and to give ourselves fully to God or to the Good News which Jesus embodies, would be to jeopardize the other commitments, beliefs and loyalties.
For those in this passage, the fear was that too much belief or behavior centered on God would stir up the Roman government and the political system under which people lived. Belief in God would alarm the Roman structure, or cause the Romans to react against the people. Best not to believe in God, or to allow God to shape life too much, in order to keep peace with the government.
We can hardly dismiss this thinking. We do the same thing, modifying our trust in God for the sake of maintaining structures in institutional Church life . . . we have loyalties to family and work that we don't want the Gospel to touch . . . we have interest in our financial security and well-being we'd prefer Jesus not meddle with . . . we have the same kinds of national interests these Jews in the passage had, and that impacts how deeply we're willing go with God.
Belief in God that transforms our living is always going to bump up against other competing loyalties, other things we hold dear. God knows this about us, so I don't think the goal is to get it all straightened out before we step into the God-life. Rather, God invites us to begin the spiritual journey right where we are and then allow God to change our hearts as we move along.
For today . . . think of a time when you made a choice for God that put you at odds with some other entity in your life . . . family, work, friends, church, or some other group. What led you to choose for God rather than the other interest? Can you remember how that felt?
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.”
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
Always we find ourselves with competing interests when it comes to living a life centered in God. We hold other loyalties to be important, and to give ourselves fully to God or to the Good News which Jesus embodies, would be to jeopardize the other commitments, beliefs and loyalties.
For those in this passage, the fear was that too much belief or behavior centered on God would stir up the Roman government and the political system under which people lived. Belief in God would alarm the Roman structure, or cause the Romans to react against the people. Best not to believe in God, or to allow God to shape life too much, in order to keep peace with the government.
We can hardly dismiss this thinking. We do the same thing, modifying our trust in God for the sake of maintaining structures in institutional Church life . . . we have loyalties to family and work that we don't want the Gospel to touch . . . we have interest in our financial security and well-being we'd prefer Jesus not meddle with . . . we have the same kinds of national interests these Jews in the passage had, and that impacts how deeply we're willing go with God.
Belief in God that transforms our living is always going to bump up against other competing loyalties, other things we hold dear. God knows this about us, so I don't think the goal is to get it all straightened out before we step into the God-life. Rather, God invites us to begin the spiritual journey right where we are and then allow God to change our hearts as we move along.
For today . . . think of a time when you made a choice for God that put you at odds with some other entity in your life . . . family, work, friends, church, or some other group. What led you to choose for God rather than the other interest? Can you remember how that felt?
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