Saints: Enjoying Jesus While Disillusioned With ReligionНамуна

Using Your Influence for Good

In John’s Gospel, we meet Caiaphas, the high priest, for the first time. The order of events goes like this: Lazarus dies. Martha proclaims Jesus is Messiah. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. And then, some Jews report the resurrection miracle to the religious authorities — namely Caiaphas.

Caiaphas could have responded to Jesus’ miracles the way Martha of Bethany had, with rejoicing. Instead, he reverts to what I think most of have tried before: denial.

Rather than recognizing that Jesus was acting according to the good values of the chief priests, such as protecting the Jewish people, Caiaphas and his fellow leaders responded with fear. The high priest was quick to find an angle that both preserved the relative security of the Jewish nation and maintained his seat in authority. Power can do that to us, too — inflate our sense of importance and make us think we’re the ones holding everything together. If we’re not careful we, like Caiaphas, can forget that it’s God’s job (and for God’s glory) to save his people.

Many in the Sanhedrin seemed worried that Jesus and his growing popularity would take the whole Jewish community down. But Caiaphas was sure that Jesus would take all the blame for causing confusion and disruption among the Jews. On this point, Caiaphas was absolutely correct. But on his other assumption, he was completely wrong. Caiaphas believed that Jesus’ death would be the end of the movement Jesus had started. He had no idea that Jesus’ death would only be the beginning.

Caiaphas’s part in this story is particularly dark. The role of high priest was meant to be a position of authority and service to God’s people. What did he do with this influence? He positioned himself in opposition to Jesus and in opposition to the values of the Torah. This is not a story about the evils of Judaism. This is a story about a man who, though commissioned and anointed to serve his people through justice and mercy, showed neither.

Any one of us who follows Jesus has struggled to reconcile the truth about Jesus with our preconceived notions of faith. But Caiaphas embodies what happens if we choose not to believe Jesus even after we are confronted with the reality of who he is and what he has done.

Caiaphas’s failures should make us cringe. His example leaves us all wanting a different kind of leader: someone who would fulfill the role of priest with integrity and sacrifice.

And maybe that is the point. These archetypes in Scripture that highlight religious people who fall short of God’s righteousness—perhaps they all point us to Jesus, the ultimate leader, who never fails us.

Jesus certainly proves to be a better high priest than Caiaphas. In fact, according to the book of Hebrews, he is the Ultimate High Priest. He is the Resurrection and the Life, and he will not be stopped.

Prayer: Dear God, I confess that I have chosen fear over justice and mercy. Help me to recognize when I am forgetting that your Son is Lord over all and to trust that His kingdom knows no end. Amen.