John 11:45-57
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 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. 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 temple 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.”
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. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” 57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
Why would any one man or group of men want to kill the Greatest One to ever live?...Jesus had just resurrected Lazarus...He did a miracle that no one had ever seen before...He performed other supernatural things and many signs that had or has never been seen...Jesus had power over death...He had raised a dead man, and because of this miracle He gets in trouble with the Pharisees, the chief priests, the Sanhedrin, and the High Priest...After seeing this resurrection miracle the Religious Leaders call a meeting...One has to ask themselves, why call a meeting after you see a great miracle?...The leaders, for some reason, believe that if Jesus continued to teach and do miracles like this the Romans would take away their temple and their nation...
The High Priest, named Caiaphas, had prophesied about Jesus...The High Priest says that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and the scattered children of Israel...Caiaphas also said, "You do not realize that it is better for you that One Man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."...What the High Priest means by this, I really do not know, because Jesus came to save His nation and the world...
Jesus had been a Consistent Minister and a Holy Man and Rabbi, who was always speaking of God...Jesus' life is built around God...He taught all about goodness, mercy, and forgiveness...He possesses great wisdom...He was as much a Servant, who humbled Himself, than He was a Leader...But now after this resurrection miracle the Jewish Religious Leaders things come to a head and they plot to kill Him...He had spoken to individuals, to small crowds, to medium sized crowds, and to large crowds about God...He had this great ability to draw large crowds...He has left an impression on all those He has met...He did not hide His Teachings and beliefs in God and who He was...He was such a unique Teacher and Man that all these things would no longer be tolerated by the High Priest...His time was at hand...
This Complex Man was a Rabbi, a Teacher, a Man of God, and One who could miracles...He performed many signs, and these signs make Him Divine...The Religious Leaders cannot see who this Man is and His complex nature seems to threaten them, and they plot to have Him killed...They seem not to understand Him...Maybe it is because He is so complex and is many things...