He Must Die For the People

“But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all.  Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.’” V 49-50

John 11: 45-57

Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead.  Many of the Jews believed He was the Messiah.  Jesus was beginning to turn the nation of Israel upside down and away from their long held mores.  The Pharisees saw him as a threat to their way of life, their traditions, their politics, and their relationship with Rome; particularly their own position of power and prestige.  If something was not done, Caesar would divide the nation and take them away from the temple.  The decision was made that Jesus must be put to death.

In this text we see two extraordinary realities (God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility) converging to explain one ultimate truth; Christ’s substitutionary death.  When Caiaphas spoke of Christ dying for the people, he did so from his own motive of political and self-preservation.  His personal intention was to murder Christ.  However, as a prophet, God spoke through him prophesying the ultimate reality of Christ’s death; to be a ransom for the people and to gather them together (v52).  Caiaphas spoke of his own will and desire, yet, ultimately, it was God’s will for Christ to die to redeem sinners (Acts 4:27-28; Ephesians 1:3-15; Revelations 13:8).

Caiaphas was right; Jesus was to die for the people.  But his death would not be for political gain or personal satisfaction, and it was not going to be at Caiaphas’s choosing.   Jesus decided when and where he was going to die for the people (John 10:18).  Moreover, his death accomplished what was necessary to deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage and captivity (1 John 5:19; Hebrews 2:15).  Jesus’s death satisfied the wrath of God and gave us the promise that sin, with its guilt and its consequences, will no longer have dominion over us (Romans 6:11).  Jesus died so that many would not perish.

This story has a similar flavor to the story of Joseph.  Read the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50.  How does God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility play out in this story?  Do you see any similarities in Joseph in comparison to Jesus?