Jesus healed a man who had been born blind. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after he had been in a tomb for four days. And yet the religious leaders of the day responded to His miraculous powers by plotting to put Him to death (v. 53). What was wrong with these guys?

Well, as we saw back in chapter 9, they opposed Jesus because He performed some of His miracles on the Sabbath (9:14). You see, according to the elaborate ethical rules they had made up, that meant Jesus was a Sabbath-breaker. And so, because Jesus did not fit into their preconceived notions of goodness, they believed he was evil, and thus that His power came from demons, not from God. In short, their pride in their theological system, their refusal to believe that they might have been mistaken led them to plot against Jesus.

But in today’s passage we see another, perhaps more powerful reason for their opposition to Jesus – fear. After all, no one could deny that Jesus was doing amazing miracles. And so the religious leaders were afraid that many of the common people would come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. And thus, they were afraid that the crowd would follow Him into battle against the Romans. If that were to happen, they were afraid that the Romans would win, and would then destroy their “place and nation” – tearing down the Temple and driving all the Jews out of the region. No, it’s no wonder that in their pride and their fear the religious leaders came to the conclusion that Jesus had to die to keep all these bad things from happening.

And it is still a combination of pride and fear that keeps many people from acknowledging the claims of Christ today. Many don’t want to admit that their affections or their habits have put them on the wrong side of God’s Law, and thus that they are sinners in need of a Savior. Others are afraid that following Jesus will require them to give up their comforts or their control over their lives. And with the rise of the “cancel culture,” still others are afraid that following Jesus will make them the targets of those like the chief priests and Pharisees, those who are desperate to stamp out any opposition to their own arrogance.

But the good news is that none of those ancient religious leaders were able to stop Jesus from completing His mission. Instead, as they participated in Jesus’ crucifixion they became unwitting participants in it. In fact, the high priest Caiaphas even said that it was better for Jesus, one man, to die for the people so that the whole nation might not perish (v. 50). And that’s exactly what happened, although not in the way they planned. For in the death of Christ, God saved not only the Jews who have trusted in Christ, but those from other nations “scattered abroad” (v. 52).

So, the good news is that the pride and fear of mere human beings are never any match for God’s sovereign power, for God’s amazing love and grace. So, let’s surrender our pride and fear and trust in Christ alone.

John 11:45-57 (ESV)

45 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.
54 Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?”
57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.