From the Daily Lectionary for Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent
John 11:45–53
Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.
Jesus now is in grave danger. Our reading takes place the day before Jesus and his disciples stage a mock royal procession into the city. The tradition has called this entrance into Jerusalem “triumphant,” as if there were some magnificent populist rally to crown Jesus king… but Jesus wouldn’t have been well known in Jerusalem. His ministry was mostly in Galilee. A gathering number of scholars now think this procession into Jerusalem (which follows the above passage) is not a coronation, but that it is a social protest, “a march on Jerusalem,” as it were. Jesus and his followers are protesting the self-interested and unjust powers that be, in particular the Jewish leadership, who are in league with the Roman overlords, looking out for their own status and interests. The powers that be, the chief Priests, and the Sanhedrin, in our passage today, are already plotting to put Jesus to death. He’s gotten their attention. Jesus hasn’t kept quiet during the festival, instead, he has been preaching and teaching… stirring up the people by simply telling the truth. The truth is that way. It will not keep still or silent.
If you’ve been following these readings in John over the last week, you’ll remember that time and again, while in Jerusalem, Jesus was on the verge of being arrested, but for some odd reason, the arrest doesn’t happen… the scribe says, “His time had not yet come.” But to be sure his arrest, trial, and execution are inevitable. In our reading today, “his time comes.” And what is interesting to me is the means by which it comes. The chief priest, worried about his privileged position with the Romans of keeping would-be insurgents under wraps, garners a consensus in the council telling them that by putting Jesus to death, they are bringing together the disparate tribes of Israel, uniting the nation… fulfilling scripture, in short. And calling his words prophecy, he uses his liturgical authority to do it. The irony is palpable. The chief priest is gaslighting his colleagues; telling them that their murderous intentions are in fact noble. But that’s what powers and principalities do. We know that all too well in our own place and time.
John is narrating a tragedy; displaying what corrupt power can and will do to the innocent who have the courage to speak the truth. We’ve seen such violence throughout human history, and in our own country. And yet we persist in the Truth, because at our baptisms we were given over to the Truth in a world that romances falsehood. But know this: Love delights in the truth, and Love will keep us there. Our time has come, good people. Our time has come.
A Prayer for the Newly Baptized (BCP p. 308)
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sin, and have raised us to the new life of grace. Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and persevere. A spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.
