Jesus, the Son of God
Chapter 25
God Agrees with the Pharisees
“the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. . . . . Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, '. . . Can't you see that it's to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?'" John 11:47-50
Reflection
As the religious leaders met to decide what to do with Jesus, Caiaphas proposed a reasonable solution. Far better to eliminate Jesus than to have the Roman Army enter Jerusalem and use brutal force to crush what would look to the military like political unrest, or even potential insurrection.
God agreed with Caiaphas. Thus John 3:16.
Why would God do this? Why would God send his Son (Himself as His Son) to die so that I can live? Why would God do this, as the big picture of the Bible implies, for you, even if you were the only person on earth? Why would He choose to die in your place?
If you know the answer to this question, then you understand Christianity.
Prayer
“Lord, I once heard that Karl Barth, perhaps the greatest theologian of the 20th century, when asked to summarize everything he had learned in a lifetime with scripture, answer, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so’. I, too, want to know that love even more deeply than I do now. Amen”
A wonderful story about religious leaders and Jesus. Is there some of Jesus in any individual who is deemed worthy of sacrifice by our religious leaders? Does following God's law prescribed in the Old Testament and by at times, by Paul, sometimes involve sacrificing individuals for the "good" of the church? Is Jesus bigger than any of our sorry attempts to define the church by saying who is in and who is out? Thank God for Jesus!
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