Chapter 10: The Decision

When the report reached Jerusalem, the chief priests and Pharisees called an emergency meeting of the Sanhedrin, the highest religious council in Israel. The question on the table was not whether the miracle happened but what to do about the man who had performed it.

PHARISEE“What are we doing? This man performs many signs. If we let Him alone, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”— John 11:47-48

Their fear was not theological. It was political. Roman authorities were extremely sensitive to any movement that gathered large followings in occupied territories. If the people rallied around Jesus as a leader, Rome would interpret it as rebellion and respond with force. The council believed they were protecting the nation.

Then Caiaphas spoke. He was the high priest that year, the most powerful religious authority in Israel. He had no patience for the debate.

CAIAPHAS“You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”— John 11:49-50

Scripture records something remarkable about those words. Caiaphas did not realize he was prophesying. God used the words of a man making a ruthless political calculation to declare what was actually about to happen. Jesus would indeed die for the people, not to satisfy a political strategy, but to gather into one all the scattered children of God across the world.

Caiaphas meant it as a strategy. God was using it as a declaration.

From that day forward, the council plotted to put Jesus to death.

COUNCIL MEMBER“It is decided.”

A man had just walked out of a tomb in Bethany. And two miles away in Jerusalem, the plan to put another man into one was set in motion.