That One Man Die

47 “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” (John 11:47-50)

This text from our reading today follows Jesus' most dramatic miracle-- raising Lazarus from the dead. The reaction of the Jewish leaders provides us a powerful object lesson in unbelief. The Jewish leaders were so sure that Jesus was not from God that they were willing to ignore this dramatic miracle. They did not deny the power of the miracle itself. They didn't even try to assign it to Satanic power as they had in Matthew 9:34. They simply called together their war council and decided that the only way to silence Jesus was for him to die. One of their own members had earlier told Jesus, "We know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." (John 3:2). But now with the most incontrovertible evidence before them, their only response was to plot his death so that He would not threaten their system or their power.

But they didn't that God was working through their unbelief. The death that they were plotting would be God's instrument to save humankind from their sin. In fact, John says that the very words that Caiaphas uses here to suggest Jesus' death were actually God's prophetic voice--

51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. (John 11:51-52)

Jesus would indeed die, not only for the Jewish nation, but for the whole world. But this was not due to the savvy leadership of Caiaphas. It was not because of the plan the Sanhedrin was hatching in their secret enclave. It was because God was working behind the scenes to accomplish His will, even to the point of using the opposition of these wicked men as part of His holy plan.

So it is with the difficulty, trials and opposition that we must suffer as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Our suffering may be due to the sinfulness of others. Or we may rather be victims of the random chaos of our broken, fallen world. Or perhaps we suffer due to our own bad decisions or sinful choices. But no matter the reason for our suffering, God can use it for His glory and our blessing. Just as God used the wicked plots of evil men to accomplish His will in Christ, so God joins us in our suffering and works in ways that we cannot understand to accomplish his will. The very people that seek to hurt us can be used by God as instruments of his peace and grace. Rather than feel that God has abandoned us when difficult times come, we should look for the finger of God reaching out to touch us!