The Better Way

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE BETTER WAY

John 11:47-57

47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." 51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life. 54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. 55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple area they asked one another, "What do you think? Isn't he coming to the Feast at all?" 57 But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him.

NIV

Jesus had just been to Bethany where He raised Lazarus from the dead, an extraordinary miracle which had to bring more people to believe in him. His popularity was increasing and the Pharisees were getting more and more determined to do whatever it took to stop him from usurping their position with the people. In this portion of the narrative, we see the prophetic words of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. We are told he did not speak those words on his own, but yet we are not told anything other than he prophesied, which had to mean he was inspired by God. That is interesting in the fact that God was using a non-follower of Jesus to accomplish His plan for the salvation of the world, just as he used Judas to betray Jesus to the Pharisees. Although Judas seemed to be a follower. What is interesting is that we have experienced such a moving of God in our lives through people who do not know him as we do. Non-believers had been involved in various ways in order for God to do something in our lives. If we cloister ourselves off from the world completely as some religious men have done and still do in monasteries, maybe we believers might have a tendency to do that within the community of faith. We only socialize with other Christians, never really coming in contact with anyone else, except maybe at our work. Just a thought. Jesus knowing the plot of the Sanhedrin withdrew for a time because he also knew the right time for his action to save the world. Ephraim was one of the sons of Joseph and part of what is referred to as the lost tribes of Israel. The desert-like region is just north of Jerusalem near Samaria. It is not far so when the time is right Jesus will be close enough to be in Jerusalem to be crucified right on the timetable of God. Everything is going according to plan, which again we have to believe that our life should also be going according to the plan of God. Sometimes we get so involved in making our own plans, we could miss out on the plan God has for us. He does not take over our will, superimposing himself upon us, much as some might think the Spirit does when people speak in tongues. God does not make us like robots, unable to think on our own, but he does desire that we submit our will to his. This may not always bring about positive results at first, such as with Jesus. He submitted his will to the Father and it caused him to suffer immensely, even onto death. But it also brought about his resurrection, glorification, and ascension to sit at the right hand of the Father. He will also return as a conquering King, destroying all the forces of evil once and for all. The point is that we should be willing to live in the will of God no matter how that works out in our lives. There is always going to be the idea of the name it and claim it people, who always think God is a genie in a  bottle and obligated to give them whatever they claim, and they claim only good things, they want. That is not the way of the life of a believer. We are simply to believe God and allow Him to direct our lives. His ways are not our ways, and our ways are not his ways, so which would be better, his or ours? We have to know the right answer, his ways are the better way.