One Man to Die for the Children

John 11:45-53,

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 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.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 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.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

We live in times, sadly, in which it’s not hard to imagine public officials seeking their own benefit. Covering their own interests. Talking arrogantly and rudely. Pursuing political expediency in which seemingly righteous ends are said to justify grossly unrighteous means.

Unfortunately, it’s not hard to imagine leaders like Caiaphas. As we hear about Caiaphas, we have lessons to learn by way of contrast. And there are marvels to see here about our God and his Son and the wonder of the grace of his gospel.

Jesus on the Rise

Last Sunday we heard how Jesus’s sovereign, omnipotent word raised the dead man, four days in the tomb. John 11:43-44,

“‘Lazarus, come out!’ The man who had died came out…”

Jesus continues as the ascendency, and now, having raised a well-known dead man, so near Jerusalem, he’s turning the city upside down. Many believe (v. 45), but others go to the Pharisees and stir up trouble (v. 46). They gather the high court, “the council,” called the Sanhedrin, made up of 70 priests and elders and scribes, with the high priest presiding. And they say,

“What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.”

Indeed he does: water into wine (2:11), cleansing the temple (2:15), restoring a dead son to life (4:53), healing the sick of all kinds (6:2), multiplying five loaves and two fish to feed thousands (6:14), giving sight to a blind man (9:16), and now, raising a dead man who had been in the grave four days (11:44).

Yes, he has done many signs. But instead of asking, like many common people are, “Could this be the long-promised Christ?” the leaders as a whole are tragically more concerned with preserving their own place and privilege. They are more oriented on political concerns with the unbelieving Romans than with spiritual concerns in their Scriptures. “If we let [Jesus] go on like this,” they say, “everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” (v. 48).

Which bring us to the fateful moment, in verses 49–52.

God Versus High Priest

At the council, Caiaphas, the high priest, speaks the decisive word. It comes from his mouth; it comes out of his heart. It is fully his. He is fully responsible for it. And John tells us in verse 51, “He did not say this of his own accord.” Who’s accord, then, was it? God’s accord. Jesus has talked over and over in this Gospel of his coming and his acting as “not of his own accord” but his Father’s. This is God’s accord, God’s plan.

So what we have in verse 50 is two visions of the coming death of Jesus: Caiaphas’s and God’s. Caiaphas perceives the situation, considers his own interest, and issues his counsel, which carries the day. And God is not caught off guard; he doesn’t rush in to fix things and “turn” them for good. No, before Caiaphas willed it, God willed it. Before Caiaphas said it, God planned it. God superintends these evil words, from Caiaphas’s evil heart, for God’s good purposes and the salvation of his people from sin and death.

And strange as this sounds in our ears, this is not new in the Bible. This is how the first book of the Bible ends. In Genesis 50:20, Joseph says to his brothers who sold him into slavery,

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…”

He doesn’t say God used it or that God turned it. Sinners meant evil; God meant it (same evil) for good. Same evil, two intentions. And we see something similar near the end of the Bible in Revelation 17:17,

“God has put it into their hearts [wicked earthly rulers] to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled…”

So, as the council meets, God is not wringing his hands, saying, “Oh no, the high priest is giving the decisive word to put my Son to death.” No, God has planned it. He has orchestrated every detail. In Acts 4:28, early Christians would praise God for bringing to pass at the cross “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” Oh Caiaphas means evil against Jesus, but God means it for good, to bring it about that many people should be saved.

So, let’s meditate on this double meaning in the words of Caiaphas in three parts.

1. Two Visions of the People

What does Caiaphas mean when he says the people? Look at verse 50:

“…it is better for you [Sanhedrin] that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

For Caiaphas, “the people” and “the whole nation” are ethnic Jews. Caiaphas wants to preserve his own ethnicity, and as we’ll see, he has very selfish reasons for doing so. So, by “people” and “nation” Caiaphas means ethnic Jews.

What does God mean? Verses 51-52:

[Caiaphas] did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

So, for God, “the people” means “the children of God” which is not every ethnic Jew, nor is it limited only to ethnic Jews. The “children of God” are all who believe in Jesus — many believers in Jesus are among the Jews, as we’ve already seen, and now comes a stunning expansion, like we saw in John 10:16: Jesus has “other sheep” who are not of the Jewish fold — that is, Gentiles!

God’s chosen children are not limited to Israel; nor is every ethnic Israelite included. From the beginning, God chose ethnic Israel historically as a channel to bring his eternal salvation to all the nations. Now, at last, Messiah has come. And now, by surprise, Messiah goes to a sacrificial death — and through him the gates swing wide to all who believe, all believing Jews and all believing Gentiles. The chosen sheep, scattered among the nations, are “the children of God,” which will come to be called “the church.”

And here’s the scandal of Jesus’s sacrificial achievement in gathering God’s children from all nations: in Christ, fellow believers in faraway places, of different nations and ethnicities, are closer by far than fellows in ethnicity, place, and mere human nation. And so today, if you are in Christ, you have something far more important in common with a Christian in China or Russia, than you do with your unbelieving American neighbor who just happens to prefer the same political party you do.

So, first, two visions of the people: Caiaphas means ethnic Jews. God means a new-covenant spiritual people from every nation, scattered abroad, and called the church.

2. Two Visions of Substitution

Caiaphas’s proposal is for substitution. A people are in danger of destruction. So substitute one man on behalf of the people, and kill him, so that the people do not perish. A political scapegoat. Verse 50 again:

“…it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

For Caiaphas, one man, Jesus, should perish, so that the Messianic fervor dissipates, the Jesus movement fades, and almighty Rome remains undisturbed and doesn’t come and destroy Jerusalem and the temple. 

And amazingly, in the superintending providence of God, Caiaphas words this in sacrificial language. One man, he says, will die “for the people” — literally, on behalf of the people. Of course, Caiaphas means it politically. This is pure politics, not spiritual leadership. This is vintage political expediency. And par for the course in world politics. 

Perhaps you’ve heard it called the end justifies the means. The end goal is seen to be good, and so the means used to get there are compromised. And mark this: this is evil. Normal and justifiable as it may seem, this is evil in God’s eyes. And this, normal politics as it might be, carries the day not in Rome but in Jerusalem among the council of 70 priests and elders and Pharisees, from the mouth of Israel’s high priest. More on that in a minute.

What about for God? What does he mean by this substitution? Verses 51-52 again:

[Caiaphas] did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

For God, his own Son, the eternal second person of the Godhead, fully divine, now fully human as man — Jesus dies on behalf of the children of God. And oh the irony of the sacrificial language — uttered by Israel’s high priest for political expedience, and totally unaware that in his very words he formulates, in the sacrificial terms of Israel’s religion, the very mechanism God uses to bring that sacrificial system and first covenant to its long-awaited apex and conclusion. This sacrifice of Jesus is the very Sacrifice that for centuries all the animal sacrifices have anticipated — all the endless blood of bulls and goats and lambs that has flowed and flowed for centuries has pointed to this one man’s flow of blood at the cross.

Which brings us right to the heart of the good news of Jesus, and amazingly, in God’s sovereignty, the words of Caiaphas, meant for evil, have us here, as God means them for good.

Christians have long called this “penal substitution.”

Penal means that a penalty is due for human sin. Sin is an affront to an infinitely worthy God. He made us, and in our sin we have turned our backs on him. And the New Testament makes it clear that the payment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). We all deserve the penalty of death, and eternal separation from God, because of our sin against him. Penal means there’s a just penalty for our sin that must be paid.

And the good news is that Jesus, in his death on the cross, is our substitute. We deserve death for our sin, but Jesus puts himself forward to die in our place, “on our behalf.” This sacrificial language of substitution runs all the way back to Leviticus — Jesus offers himself as the substitute, in our place, to receive our penalty of death (as animals did only temporarily in the old covenant), that he might then rise, and with him we too might be released to life.

So, God’s vision is penal substitution: Jesus is our substitute sin-bearer. He took the penalty of death we deserve for our sin, by substituting himself in our place at the cross, that all the children of God, scattered abroad, could be joined to him by faith and live.

3. Two Visions of High Priesthood

Caiaphas is Israel’s official high priest. There is no other high priest, only one. There are whole chapters of Scripture (Exodus 28–29; Leviticus 8, 16) that deal with his clothes and how to consecrate him for office, and what he does on the Day of Atonement, which is the one day each year when the high priest enters the Holy of Holies to offer the climactic annual sacrifice on behalf of the people. 

So, who was Israel’s high priest that year? John tells us three times. Don’t miss this, and don’t miss the scandal of it.

Verse 49: one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all…”

Verse 51: [Caiaphas] did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation…

And John 18:13-14: once the soldiers arrested and bound Jesus, “First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.”

So, it is Israel’s high priest who gives the decisive word that puts Israel’s long-awaited Messiah to death. The last act of Israel’s final high priest is to give the word to kill Israel’s Messiah.

Oh the failure of the mere human and hereditary high priesthood! It failed from the very beginning:

Think of Aaron, Moses’s brother, the first high priest. What was his infamous first public act? He made and led the people in worshiping the golden calf. 

Then his sons, Nadab and Abihu “offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-2).

Next we think of negligent Eli and his worthless sons, Hophni and Phinehas (1 Sam 2).

And more broadly, over and over again, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Malachi condemn the greed and corruption and idolatry and neglect of Israel’s priests.

The history of Israel, from beginning to end, makes the lesson plain: mere humanity and heredity cannot provide the needed high priest to mediate between God and man.

And Caiaphas sees that Israel’s high priesthood goes out with a bang. This is so tragic: politics and its expediency have captured the high priest! He’s ordained as the nation’s spiritual leader and playing at politics! As Don Carson observes:

“the nation perished anyway [in 70 AD], not because of Jesus’ activity but because of the constant mad search for political solutions where there was little spiritual renewal.”

O God, give your church spiritual renewal and free us from any “constant mad search for political solutions.”

Lessons by Contrast

We see the kind of guy Caiaphas is by the first thing out of his mouth: “You know nothing at all.” That’s how he talks. That’s his tone: you guys are stupid. You’re fools. What are you trying to do, solve this problem righteously? You’re trying to fix this trouble without resorting to evil? Let me show you fools how to do it.

And then, with the same mouth, and as with the mouth of Satan himself, he speaks the decisive word to put the nation’s Messiah to death: “it is better for you that one man should die for the people.” Don’t miss that “for you” in verse 50. He does not say it’s better for the nation but “for you,” for you priests and elders and scribes in the room. It’s better for you, Sanhedrin. This is wicked leadership.

So, beware: fathers and mothers, teachers, business people, fellow pastors. Beware a tone that treats others like fools. It may seem small (“fight the world on the world’s terms”). It’s not small. Where is it coming from? From the heart. Your careless, socially conditioned, socially permissible words are coming from your own heart. And where are they going? It may be a first indicator that expediency is taking root in your heart. Beware the spirit of expediency that would say (or usually not even say it but just live it): my good ends justify these shady means. You are, in effect, saying, “Sin is okay, evil is okay, deception is okay, injustice is okay, if it serves the purpose for something I really want and would make my life a lot easier.”

And in leadership beware the spirit of self-service (rather than self-sacrifice). Let me tell you what’s really easy to do in a room of decision makers: decide on what’s easiest for the room. What’s best for the people here. Whether it’s a Sanhedrin of 70 or an elder table of 8, the natural pull, apart from the help of God’s Spirit, is for a room of sinners to work toward decisions that are easiest and best for the room.

As your pastors, we are aware of this pull, and we pray and we resolve and we keep each other accountable that we not make decisions that are best for the room. Rather, as your pastors we take it as our call to ask for God’s help and work toward decisions that are best for this church — and are often more costly for us personally. More work to do. More conversations to have. More calls to make, letters to write, topics to research, tasks to compete. This is how good leadership often works: more, not less, is required of the leaders to care well for their people. (A critical parenting lesson, especially in discipline!)

Our Great High Priest

I end with this, as we come to the Table: Did you realize there are two high priests in this passage? I didn’t see this at first. Yes, there is Caiaphas, and as the high priesthood in Israel fails, and comes to its appointed end with one last and greatest failure of all, the one who emerges is not only our sacrifice and substitute but, as Hebrews calls him, our great high priest. 

I know priesthood can seem obscure and distant to us in the 21st century. Perhaps here’s one way to get your bearings more around what it means to have Jesus as our great high priest: he is not like Caiaphas. Caiaphas was one of many and the last in Israel. Jesus is the first, and one and only, in the new covenant. Caiaphas’s office was temporary. Jesus’s is forever, and of an entirely different order. Caiaphas was evil, rude, self-serving. Jesus, our great high priest is

…holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those [other] high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. (Hebrews 7:26-27)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, “we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 8:1). “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).