Must Listen

Must Read

What Art Thinks

Pre-Millennialism

Today's Headlines

Man blowing a shofar

Administrative Area





Locally Contributed...

Audio

Video

Special Interest

Home » Site Index » Weekly Bible Study
Weekly Bible Study
3414
“Caiaphas, a Religious Leader Who Couldn't Stand People”
by Hugh Davidson   
September 21st, 2008

John 11: 47-57, “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, what do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves.Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among themselves, as they stood in the temple, What think ye, that he will not come to the feast?Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him.”

I don’t know about you but I find it strange that these people would even be considered a religious group because their beliefs seemed to be more connected to the money in the temple than anything else and besides, this passage shows us they were not only not religious but they were also just plain rude.

Look at Caiaphas’ response to the rest of the group in verse 49 where he says, “You know nothing at all.” How would you like to have a conversation with him? He starts the conversation off by telling you what an idiot you are and this gives us some insight into the Sadducee’s mindset in that these are a people with a sense of domineering arrogance. And one thing that was always on their mind was the fact that they had to do anything and everything to hold on to both their money and their power. And if they thought Jesus could cause Rome to take away all they had, then as far as they were concerned, He had to die; because all they cared about was taking care of themselves. And listen, it never occurred to them to ask if He was right or wrong because as far as they were concerned, it didn’t really matter because what really mattered most; was that no one upset the social applecart.

History actually records that these people made bids on the position of chief priest to the Roman government and the one who won the bid had the opportunity of making money from the temple treasury. And Caiaphas was supposed to have had the job for a year but he managed to keep it for eighteen.

So, basically these guys were circling the wagons in order to survive because as far as they were concerned things had gotten out of hand, so they gathered a council and this would have been like the supreme court of Israel. And I think they got the council together to give everyone the impression they were doing everything right. And that way, no one could accuse them of vigilante justice. Remember, they had tried to kill Jesus back in chapter 10 but now that He was gathering a following they wanted official status on their plan.

And during this meeting they gave the greatest testimony to the miracles of Jesus. I mean, here are all of His enemies and they’re giving a clear testimony of what they saw when they said, ‘He did many miracles.” And it seems strange but the one miracle that brought them all together was the one that happened to Lazarus and yet, no one even mentioned it. I don’t think they wanted to say anything because then they’d have to deal with the issue of raising the dead and how Jesus did this if He wasn’t God or sent by God.

So, they didn’t know how but they knew He did these miracles. Unbelief has a unique way of investigating the miraculous; it starts out with a suggestion and then comes to a conclusion while ignoring all the facts.

The problem as they saw it is in verse 48, “If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” They said the longer He goes on, the bigger the crowds are getting and the more influence He has on the people. And although this was true, what they couldn’t see was that many of the people who were following Jesus were doing it for all the wrong reasons. They had come to see the miracles or get a healing and I’m sure there were some who were just there for the free food and others who came to hear Him teach just for something to do.

Did you realize there are people who attend churches today because they’ve always gone with their parents and now that their parents have died, going to church gives them a sense of comfort because they feel like they’re doing what their parents would want them to do. People can do all the right things for all the wrong reasons. So, we have to be careful in just assuming that everyone in church has a relationship with the Lord.

So, we have all these religious people who were opposed to Jesus and they were meeting to try and figure out how they could get rid of Him and they said they were afraid of the Romans coming and taking away their temple and the right to worship and that was actually exactly what happened but the reason it happened wasn’t because of Jesus preaching but a lot of historians believed that it was because of His crucifixion. And in 70 A.D. the city was overwhelmed by the Romans, the temple was destroyed, the Jews were slaughtered and many were led away into captivity and the nation ceased to exist.

So, the first one to talk here was Caiaphas and the only way to describe him would be to say he was arrogant and looked down his nose at everyone else. He could hardly stand talking to his friends let alone the Pharisees. Josephus, the Jewish historian describes his type when he says, “The manners of the Sadducees are far rougher than the Pharisees, both to each other and to their equals, whom they treat as strangers.” One person commenting on this passage said, “Caiaphas was very much like the Mafia type and he said, wipe him out, waste him, and quit wasting my time with such nobodies.”

And yet, what he says shows us how the power of God can even work through the unsaved. We see this in verses 49-52 where Caiaphas said, “If you had any sense, you would come to the conclusion that it is far better that one man perish for the nation than that the whole nation perish.” And in verses 51 and 52 it says, “And this spake he not of himself: but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. And not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.”

Now, we have to realize that it was common for God to speak through the high priest in the Old Testament. As Moses chose Joshua he told him that when he wanted to know God’s will on a certain matter he was to go to the high priest who happened to be Eleazar at the time and he was to ask for counsel on behalf of the nation. It says in Numbers 27, “At his word the people should go out and the people should come in.” And so, as wicked as Caiaphas was, he did speak for God and yet, we can also see that he also spoke for himself because his crowd viewed Israel as their nation rather than God’s. We can also see that Caiaphas was impatient with the others because they weren’t as willing as he was to do whatever had to be done and when he said that Jesus’ death would be for the people what he meant was that it would be for themselves and yet, in spite of their plans God overruled them and used their actions for His glory. And the conclusion of their meeting was, “And from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him to death.” And so, the result of this formal meeting was a judgment on Jesus’ life.

Listen, Caiaphas was a wicked and ungodly man but in spite of that God still used him. We see a little more of him over in Matthew 26:63 where Caiaphas said to Jesus at His first trial before the Sanhedrin, “Tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God?” Jesus answered him by saying, “Thou hast said, nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” And this was exactly what Caiaphas had hoped Jesus would say, so then he’d be able to accuse Him of blasphemy and they could justify themselves by having Him killed. And then we also see his hypocritical reaction in verse 65 where it says, “Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy.” And in Jewish culture people tore their clothes as an expression of sorrow or as a reaction to blasphemy. We’re actually told that some people had a special lightly sown seam in their clothes so it would rip at the same place every time. You see, that way they could sew it and tear it again but it wouldn’t actually ruin their clothes. So, when Caiaphas tore his clothes he was acting like he was shocked and hurt by Jesus words when in fact he was happy because now he had the chance to do what he wanted. But back in verse 50 he said, “Either Jesus dies or we all die.” And we know that this was an illogical statement because they weren’t threatened by Rome and yet, everyone else agreed. You see, no one raised any objections and no one suggested any alternatives because I think they were simply intimidated by who he was. So, Caiaphas prophesied but that didn’t mean anything in terms of his spirituality. He was on the same level as Baalam’s donkey and I don’t think he was rewarded for telling the truth either.

go back button