Saturday Of The Fifth Week Of Lent

GOD PROTECTS AND GUIDES THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIM

Ezekiel 38:21-28
Jeremiah 31:10-13
John 11:45-56

As we draw towards the passion week. We see in today’s gospel that the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin were plotting against Jesus. They said that if they left Jesus alone, many would believe in Him. But they heard of His works and refused to believe in Him. They were more concerned about the Romans taking their land than their response to the man who rightfully claimed to be God.

The plot thickens in this chapter because earlier Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and “many believed in Him” (10:42). It is this growing belief in Him that causes the Jewish leaders to get rattled; rattled enough for religious leaders to plan a murder! Jesus, by His words and deeds, has effectively got a whole Samaritan village to believe in Him (4:41). That belief spreads to the royal household when Jesus heals the royal official’s son (4:50).

There is belief in Jesus after He foretells His death (8:30), after the healing of the man born blind (9:36-38), at the end of the good shepherd discourse (10:21), at the feast of the dedication of the temple (10:42), through Martha’s profession (11:27) and in the Jews who witnessed Lazarus’ raising from the dead (11:45). To top it all, many acknowledged Him as a prophet (7:40) some even as the Messiah (7:41). All this was too much for Caiaphas and the Jewish establishment to bear. If this got out of hand, Caiaphas was going to get out of a job.

History tells us that Caiaphas held the office of High Priest from AD 18 and continued to do so till AD 36. High Priests held office as long as they enjoyed Roman favor and that will explain the true anxiety over Caiaphas’ remarks. He was not concerned for the Jewish people; he was most certainly concerned about enforcing the ‘Pax Romani’ or the peace of Rome, to ensure his position as high priest.

Clean water can run through rusty pipes, for God’s ways are not man’s ways. Surely Caiaphas had all the wrong intentions. He wanted Jesus dead because he hated Jesus; for him this was personal. Caiaphas was not only rusty, he was ready to burst! Yet God sends us the words of salvation through ‘the prophecy’ of a ‘rusty pipe’. In his prophesy, Caiaphas said 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.’ Caiaphas was right in words but not in intention, for Jesus died so that we all could be brought into God’s kingdom.

The first reading and the psalm point to God’s protection and guard over those who hope in Him. As we step into Holy Week tomorrow, we should find our feet side by side with the disciples on the dusty road to Jerusalem, experiencing closely the ‘great drama’ of our salvation as we join the crowds in shouting, “Hosanna”. You cannot be the audience anymore. You are on stage. Participate actively and God bless.

Fr Joseph Osho