Saved or Safe?
Opening Prayer
Lord, deliver me from the clutches of any brand of unbelief in You.
Read John 11:45–57
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.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“We have all received grace in place of grace already given” (John 1:16). Thank God for when his grace has surprised you, in your life and in the life of others.
All throughout his Gospel, John hints that not all will respond to Jesus with faith. In the prologue he comments with poignancy: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). In this narrative he highlights the division between those who accept and those who reject him. The skepticism in verse 37, “Couldn’t he have done something…?” anticipates the abuse Jesus will receive on the cross: the shouts of “Save yourself!” (Mark 15:30).
John’s account of the Jewish leaders’ dilemma is full of irony. The only
mention in the gospels of the Romans (48) identifies a real problem—the
oppression of Roman rule and the danger of triggering military action. It
also identifies the leaders’ real failing—their anxiety bears not on who Jesus really is but whether people believing him will get them into trouble. The consummate irony is that their rejection of Jesus will ultimately lead to the Romans destroying “both our temple and our nation” (48). “If only you had recognized the time of God’s visitation—but you would not!”(Luke 19:42–44, free translation). Because of their own self-interest, they actually replace God with Caesar; their forthcoming acclamation “We have no king but Caesar!”(John 19:15) is a re-writing of the Jewish prayer “We have no king but God”!
Caiaphas is of the opinion that Jesus’ death will save his nation from the
Romans (50), but rather, it will save his nation from the power and penalty of sin. Jesus is the “lamb of God” (John 1:36), who will give his life “as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). And not just for the Jewish nation but for the “scattered children of God” (51,52), those “other sheep”(John 10:16) “who believed in his name” (John 1:12). Where grace may be hemmed in by unbelief, it can also spill over to others who will respond to the Good News.
Apply
Take time today to attend carefully to what God is doing in your life and your world. Where can you see God’s grace spilling over to the unexpected?
Closing prayer
Lord, I fully understand what Your death means for the world and specifically for me. Thank You for redeeming me.
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