John 11:45-57, One Man Died for All

As you might expect and hope, many of the Jews (i.e. the leadership) “believed in Him" that day (v45).  But sadly, as you might have anticipated, the conspiracy against Jesus also grew stronger (v46-47).  This is Jesus.  His mother had been told at His birth, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against.  Jesus is what we call a “watershed” issue in life, or, as we in the Rocky Mountains call it, Jesus is the “continental divide” of life.  He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him (Jn. 3:36).

The decision by the Jews to reject Christ had been made previously.  In John’s gospel you see it when Jesus cleansed the temple (Jn. 2), and again in Nicodemus (Jn. 3), a leader among the Jews, who had to come to Jesus at night because there was already opposition to Jesus.  The opposition became a plot to kill Him when He healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda (Jn. 5:16-18).  It didn’t happen for various reasons, primarily because Jesus’ time had not yet come (Jn. 7:30,44; 8:59; 10:39).  But now, after the raising of Lazarus, the leaders knew they needed to “pull the trigger,” so to speak. 

Caiaphas, the High Priest, made this clear in an interesting statement in v50: it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.  John makes a comment about this, that Caiaphas as High Priest actually prophesied this.  Caiaphas was anything but a God-glorifying prophet.  He stood against the One sent by God.  And further, Caiaphas did not mean to say what John says he said.  Caiaphas meant Jesus must go or all the people will choose to follow Him and then the Romans will kill us all!  John said that, being High Priest, God put words in Caiaphas mouth that were profound: Jesus would die as the substitutionary sacrifice and atonement for the people.  In other words, the death of Christ, meant for evil, would be for good. 

If you think this is twisted in some way, let me remind you of a couple of things.  First, in the Old Testament there was a prophet named Balaam (Num. 23-24) who was known for his greed: he was in it for the money, like Caiaphas.  Yet, God overcame Balaam’s poor motivation and spoke some amazing prophecies through him.  In other words, God can and will use whomever He wants.  Second, the fact that God used sinful men to accomplish His will is common knowledge in the New Testament.  Peter preached it in the first sermon, that in God’s plan men with lawless hands crucified Jesus (Ac. 2:22-24).  Paul referred to the “mystery” of God, where God determined before the ages that, for our glory, the evil rulers of this world would crucify “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:6-8).  Oh, the love of God for this world full of sinners (John 3:16)!