Removing the Competition

“So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people”.  (John 18:12-14 ESV)

Did Caiaphas, the high priest that year, understand that Jesus was more than a carpenter?  Did he see Jesus as a good man, as a great teacher and prophet, maybe, but more than likely not, how then did the high priest see Jesus, as a competitor, as a threat?  The high priest refused to see Jesus as “the Son of God in the flesh.”  Before you pick up your stone to throw at Caiaphas, how do you see Jesus, is he just a Son of God or is He the only Son of God?

We do have the answers to our questions above, Caiaphas had one goal and that was to remove anyone who might cause him and his religious leaders to play second fiddle to them.  In the gospel of Luke we are given the answer: “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 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.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.”  (John 11:45-53 ESV) 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice