Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 12, 2025

John 11, 45-56

Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to kill him.  So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.  Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves. They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”

The events in today’s Gospel Reading occur just after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead at  Bethany, just outside Jerusalem about two weeks before the Passover and the Lord’s Death on the Cross.  

“Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.”  Some Greek manuscripts have “who had come to Mary and Martha”.  These are the sisters of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.  Note that the text says “many” and not “all”.  There are those who so harden their hearts against faith that it cannot make a mark on them, as when Jesus traced his finger on the pavement of the Temple courtyard when the Pharisees wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery: he made no marks as the stone did not permit it.  

“So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin.”  The raising of Lazarus signaled the Jewish leaders that a crisis was arising and that it needed to be dealt with.  A sanhedrin was a Jewish court consisting of elders and rabbis who examined cases both religious and civil.  The sanhedrin in Jerusalem was known as the Great Sanhedrin.  It consisted of seventy members (based on Numbers 11, 25).  It acted as a sort of Supreme Court.

“If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” The Jewish leaders believed that Jesus meant to lead a rebellion against the Romans and to establish himself as king, as the Messiah was to do.  But they did not believe that he was the Messiah and so would instigate a preemptive revolt that would result in the destruction of Jerusalem before the actual Messiah could come.  Strangely, they admitted that “this man is performing many signs”, including raising the dead, but their personal hatred of him and their fear of what he might do caused them to both recognize the miracles and to deny that they were accomplished through divine power.

“You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”  This is the statement of the high priest, Caiaphas, who had come to his office through his appointment by the Roman prefect in 18 A.D.  The words of the high priest, quoted here, reveal not a religious but a political mind at work.  He does not see Jesus as “John the Baptist, and other some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets” (Matthew 16, 14) as many of the people do.  He sees him as a rival to his own leadership who must die.  

“So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews.”  The Lord withdrew for a short time to the town of Ephraim, about a dozen miles from Jerusalem.  He did so in order to give the members of the Sanhedrin time to reflect upon what they meant to do and in order to continue teaching the Apostles and preparing them for what was to come.

“They looked for Jesus.”  That is, the Jews who came from Galilee and Judea for the holy days.  They were anticipating that he would announce himself as the Messiah and that he was restoring the Kingdom of David.

We look for Jesus too and find him in the Holy Eucharist, in which he humbly deigns to give himself to us.