Fearing the Future

John 11.45-end

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.


Reflection

The future had arrived and people were scared. The Romans were more directly involved in running the restive province than ever before and the Jewish people were fractured over what form the community – both civic and religious – should take. Leaders squabbled. Things did not look good.


Into this mess came Jesus, who preached about God’s new creation and through signs showed what that new creation was about. Some responded with enthusiasm. Others with curiosity. And, as we know from this passage, others with fear.


It’s easy at this remove to condemn Caiaphas and his cohort. Why didn’t they embrace Jesus and his message of love? Why, instead, did they sell Jesus down the river?


As we ask these questions, we would do well in our own age of fear and anxiety to consider how we react to threats to the familiar, to accelerating change. Not so we can acquiesce in doing what is wrong but so we remember just what kind of strength is needed to do that which is right.

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