Last week’s section was supposed to cover verses 17 through 46 of John 11, but I misread the stopping point and ended at verse 44, where Jesus commands the people to unbind the newly raised Lazarus. The two verses I accidentally excluded are important, as they guide us into today’s section and set the tone for one of the things we’ll see in the passage – the broken and wayward condition of those who oppose Jesus. Verses 45 and 46 say,

“Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.”

Before a crowd of witnesses Jesus glorifies God and raises a man who had been dead four days. It was pointed out in last week’s sermon that while “the Jews” is usually used in John’s gospel to indicate the religious leaders or the council of the Sanhedrin, this case may point to the professional mourners who were common in the culture. An example of these mourners can be seen in Matthew 9, Mark 5, and Luke 8. They are those who were wailing loudly over the death of Jairus’ daughter, who openly laughed at Jesus when He told them that the girl was not dead, but only sleeping. But the word for “the Jews” used in this passage of John is the same as in the rest of the book, seeming to indicate that some of these mourners were part of the religious ruling class, or at the very least, followers of their practices and teachings. This fits, as the two verses I accidentally omitted last week show the response of this group is divided, just as we’ve seen the ruling Jews are becoming concerning Jesus in other passages. Some of the group have the correct response – God is perfect, constant, and unchanging. He is the same today as He was yesterday, as He was 2,000 years ago. I had a conversation with a young lady this past week concerning religion, the Bible, sin, and faith in Christ. Her description of herself and her personal belief was, “God-fearing” with blind faith in Jesus, but without taking the Word as 100% authentic. She cited the worn-out argument of the “telephone game” for not entirely trusting the accuracy of the Bible, and cited the story of Noah’s ark as one she has trouble believing due simply to the logistics. It seemed to be a productive conversation – I was blessed to be able to give Biblical answers and pushback to some of her concerns, both about manuscript accuracy and content. There wasn’t a lightbulb moment where everything seemed to change for her, but I was fortunate enough to scatter the seeds of Truth, which in many cases is all we can ask for. One thing that stuck with me was her declaration that she persisted on blind faith in Jesus – we are not called to blind faith. Faith, yes, but blind faith? Nothing from the beginning to end of scripture supports that this is God’s plan for us. We are to trust and rely fully on God, but there’s nothing blind about it. We’re offered proof and reassurance through His Word, His blessings, and by our very existence. The response of some of the witnessing Jews to what Jesus has done in raising Lazarus is right and good. They see Him glorify God, restore life to a dead man, and they place their faith in Him. But this isn’t absent from our world today. What is more miraculous, that a man who has lied dead for four days could be raised back to life, or that a man who has walked dead in his sin for years could be reached, restored, and made new by the Spirit? Both are miraculous, both are works of the Father, but it’s important to remember that we do not live in a world devoid of miraculous intervention, somehow separate from the influence Jesus held and worked during His earthly ministry. But just as there were those who saw His power, who witnessed His authority and ran instead after worldly things, there are those today who insist on chasing the offerings of the world and denying the proof that God has provided. Jesus said in Matthew 11:16–19

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Some hearts are hard to the point of only rejecting grace, some minds given over to pursue worldly things and deny the God that made them. It is this kind of person, possessed of greed and wickedness that we see at the start of today’s passage as the Sanhedrin gathers to plot against the Messiah. Through this section we see the juxtaposition between the plans of man, corrupt and wicked in their nature, and the work of God, unstoppable and precise.

The Wickedness of Man, the Might of God

“So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, ‘What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’”

1.      The Plans of Man are Wicked

Receiving the testimony of eyewitnesses who ran to report the resurrection of Lazarus, the Sanhedrin is thrown into an intense debate. It would make sense, and be refreshing to see them discussing the implications of what Jesus has done, acknowledging as some of their number have done previously, that His works testify to His authority in the Father. The logical response would be to question their previous persecution of Jesus, and look to align themselves with the will of God that they claim to pursue. Sadly, what we see unfolding is the opposite of this. Jesus has been a threat to them from the onset of His ministry. He is the Way, the Truth, and Life itself, whereas they lead people toward destruction, standing on a throne of lies, and shutting the kingdom of heaven in the faces of those they’re meant to guide. While it has been clear before, this plainly shows us where the hearts and minds of the ruling Jews are aimed. Matthew 6:19–24 says,

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

People will often read this passage and walk away speaking of the evils of money – but money is just a marker of worldliness. If you think about it, what exactly is money? Not the literal dollar, but money in a general sense. You can’t eat it, you can’t build a house with it, it has no practical, physical use from a survival standpoint. It has value because the world has agreed upon and given it value, but it is beyond worthless, and a stumbling block in a spiritual, eternal sense. So you can see where the heart and mind of a man is aimed by looking to what he treasures. Presented with the Christ, those who sat upon the seat of Moses, who were charged with the highest spiritual duty of teaching and guiding God’s people, chose the world. Presented with the Prophesied Messiah, whose works were only growing more and more undeniable, they conspired to kill Him, and in doing so, turn aside the people’s faith and avoid the persecution of the Romans. Their hearts are not turned toward God, but toward preserving their position and societal power by any means necessary. Something I’ve written about before is the foundational sin of lying. It’s easy to trivialize, we tell “white lies” or “stretch the truth,” but in actuality when we lie, we emulate Satan. In some way, large or small, when we lie, we seek to be our own gods. God is Truth, the condition and nature of reality is His creation, so when we deny this in favor of what is untrue, the way we desire things to be, we are in some way seeking to tear down what God has put in place and replace or obscure it with the lie. The lie of Satan in the garden is ultimately what laid the foundations for sin itself. Lying goes hand in hand with murder – this may seem like a stretch, as again, worldly conditioning leads us toward downplaying the severity of lying, but again consider the beginning. Cain chose to yield himself to the sin that sat crouching at his door, and rather than come under God’s Truth, he killed his brother. The Sanhedrin, the would-be teachers who clamor to hold on to the worldly authority they’re allowed under Rome, are of the same mold. Jesus describes their nature in Matthew 23:29–36, aligning their character with Cain’s.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

As the Jews discuss the Truth of Christ and how they might eliminate it, we can see what plans borne of the hearts of men look like. But it is the word of their leader, the one holding the title of high priest that shows their wickedness uncovered on full display.

“But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.’”

Caiaphas was not just high priest that year, but held the position for approximately eighteen years. This was the office originally held by Aaron alongside Moses, and was a position typically served in for life. By the time of Jesus however, the high priest was more a position of Roman appointment and allowance, than it was anything related to the Levitical priesthood, or the lineage of Aaron. What this tells us is that Caiaphas, in serving longer than any other high priest during the Roman era, was not good or effective in his position from any sense of righteousness, but in his diplomacy with Rome. When the matter of Jesus, who has now been witnessed holding the authority to raise the dead, comes before the council, Caiaphas speaks with a cold, shrewdness that is sickening to take in. As high priest he is the highest authority among the Jewish people and in the council of the Sanhedrin. As a Sadducee, we know that he does not believe in the resurrection, with Acts 23:8 saying,

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.”

And in what we see, there is no consideration for the spiritual implications of his plans. This also makes sense, as the Sadducees were seen as a powerful social sect, taking the majority of seats on the Sanhedrin, and were known historically to prioritize their relationship with the ruling Romans. So, Caiaphas states plainly that it is better for them that Jesus die, and end His stirring up of the people, so that Rome will not stamp out the potential uprising. It is better for the Truth to die, for the works of God to be opposed so that their worldly power may be retained. This principle is referenced by Gamaliel in Acts 5:35–39 when he addresses the Sanhedrin concerning the Apostles,

… “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” …

While it’s worth noting that Jesus has done nothing to encourage rebellion, removing Himself from the crowd that sought to commit insurrection and make Him king, and even condoning paying taxes to Rome in Matthew 22:16–22 when the Pharisees and Herodians seek to trip Him up with their questions,

“’Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.”

But what the council of the Sanhedrin knows is that when there has been rebellion (which as a threat to their hollow authority, is certainly how they see Jesus’s ministry), if the leader dies, the rebellion ends. If the rallying point is removed, the threat of Rome needing to move against the Jewish people goes away. And so Caiaphas selfishly, wickedly, and with profound hardness of heart states openly to the council that Jesus must die.

2.      The Plan of God is Unstoppable

“He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

What are the plans of man compared to the plans of God? Paul wrote extensively on our sin nature in Romans 7, saying in verses 14–20,

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

The plans, goals, desires, and aims of our flesh are sin, leading to death and destruction. Yet concerning the plans of God, Paul writes in Romans 8:28–30,

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Caiaphas, cold, calculating, and bent on worldly power, spoke out of the wickedness of his flesh, and yet there is a depth of truth to his words that he couldn’t possibly comprehend. He intends for Jesus to die to end the threat to their power, and leave the Jewish people with what freedoms they’re allowed under Rome, but this is eclipsed by the plan of God. Numbers 22-23 chronicles the attempt of Balak, the king of Midian to hire Balaam the prophet to curse the people of Israel. Deuteronomy 23:5 says in synopsis of the events,

“But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you.”

Caiaphas may plan to kill Jesus for personal gain, but instead Jesus will sacrifice Himself, giving up His life only to live again and bring liberation to the world – dying in our stead so that we might know freedom from the death we’ve earned in sin. The evil schemes of man are turned aside as nothing before the perfect plans of God. While the Sanhedrin plots to kill the Son of God, they play into the will of the Father, a plan Jesus has already told them of, thought they didn’t understand. He said in John 10:16,

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Unknowingly, Caiaphas has done far more than just plan to murder the Son of God, but has prophesied what Jesus has already said would come to pass. That the Good Shepherd would lay down His life for His sheep, that any who hear His voice and come to Him might be saved, and that His flock would be opened to sheep “not of this fold,” brought in, included as one flock. Jerusalem will be destroyed within a generation of Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension, but the nation of the people of God, Jew and Gentile alike, is established and saved for eternity.

3.      The Plan of God is Precise

“So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?’ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.”

Jesus has had an adversarial relationship with the ruling Jews since His cleansing of the temple in John 2. They have moved from looking to persecute Him for his Sabbath healings, to desiring to kill Him since His declaration that God is His Father in John 5:18,

“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

Multiple times, we’ve seen them lay theological or political traps for Him, only to have the situation turned back on them by Jesus’s perfect understanding of the Law and the will of God. They sought to kill Him at the Feast of Booths, and tried to have Him arrested, but we’re stayed by His words and authority. We’ve seen the Jews take up stones to kill Him, only to be stopped with a word, or else fail to harm Him as Jesus removed Himself from the situation, showing again and again that the Son of Man will not be put to death before it is time. But God’s plan does lead toward calvary, it is the plan, as it has been since before the fall, for the Son of Man to die for the sins of the world, and be raised again on the third day. We can see the intricacy, the precision of God’s plan in the perfect timing of all this. While the Jews have been desiring to kill Jesus for quite some time, and we’ve seen His movements keep their fury with Him stoked, it is right before the Passover, right before the time God has ordained for Him to die, that Jesus ups the stakes. He allows Lazarus to die, rather than healing him while sick, and preventing his death. He returns to a hostile region, and in what is essentially the Sanhedrin’s backyard, glorifies the Father and raises His beloved friend from the dead before a host of witnesses. The ruling Jews in learning of this, go from seeking an opportunity to kill Jesus, to planning to kill Jesus. With the plan coming from the highest authority on their council, things have become less responsive and more premeditated. Jesus does this, stokes the fire of His enemy’s fury, and withdraws to the wilderness with His disciples for a final time. With the plans of His adversaries set in motion, which play into the plans of the Father which were in motion before the dawn of time, we move into the Passover. Waiting and watching, with orders for anyone to report His presence so that they might arrest Him, the Sanhedrin may expect Jesus to enter discretely as He did during the Feast of Booths. But the time for discretion has passed, the hour for Him to be glorified is approaching, and when He enters Jerusalem it will be with a parade of followers announcing His arrival. Man may stand, stained in sin, against God, but the plans of the world are as nothing before the will of the Lord. It is in His detail and precision that we can find reassurance and comfort, knowing that there is nothing unseen or unaccounted for by our God. Luke 12:29–31 says,

“And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”

We are not forgotten, forsaken, or neglected, but are beloved children of a Father who’s plans overcome the world itself.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j79YnV8KiYs