The Danger of Pride

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE DANGER OF PRIDE

John 11:43-57

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"  44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."  45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 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

Since we already dealt with Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, we move on to the two responses of this event. We include the call of Lazarus to come out and the command to let him go to give the context to the responses. First, we see that many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. We do not know how many, but many also do not mean all. Why would anyone not believe after seeing Jesus bring a dead man back to life? In fact, we are told that some of them, who must be the ones who did not believe, went and told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. Why would they do that? The Sanhedrin was a powerful force among the people. They held the power to either allow or reject a person’s right to be in the synagogue. We have seen this power exerted in the questioning of the parents of the man born blind. They refused to say it was Jesus for the Pharisees had already decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. So this some who went to the Pharisees told them Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, but we have to believe, they did not say that Jesus must then be the Christ, therefore not be in danger of being put out of the synagogue, but rather being in league with the Pharisees. It seems power usually corrupts people. The Pharisees were afraid that Jesus would cause the Romans to come and take away their place as the leaders of the people. Sometimes we think it has not changed much today. There are still people who do not want anyone to challenge their authority over the people. We see that in government and we expect to see it, for power usually corrupts. But we would not ever expect to find that scenario in the church. But throughout the ages, it did happen all too often. Way back in The 1400s the Catholic Church actually had three competing popes. All wanting the absolute authority over the church. A council was formed and it regarded itself supreme power over any pope. This same council also condemned as heretical the teachings of a priest, Jan Hus, and had him burned at the stack. It also condemned the writings of an Englishmen, John Wycliffe, who had already died of a stroke. This is just a smidgen of how power corrupted the church in past years. But corruption is still hard at work in the church today. Pride is usually at the forefront of this corruption. Thinking more of oneself leads to this prideful state of mind. Another way to put it is being pigheaded, stubborn, and dogmatic in our thinking leads to prideful thinking. Jesus was humble of heart, yet he was God. He had all the power, all authority was given to him, even authority over life and death, but he never exerted his authority in order to exalt himself, but always gave all the honor and all the glory to his Father. This should serve as a life lesson for us. All that we are, all that we know, all that we have, all that we do, has nothing to do we our great abilities, but are a gift from God, and we should remember to always give him all the honor, all the praise for everything. All too often we lift men up because of their knowledge, or their educational level, or their spiritual qualities or some other talent or skill they appear to possess. By doing so, we may well be tempting them to be prideful and that would not be right. It holds true for us as well. We have to be careful not to allow people to praise us for anything that we know, do, or say. All praise belongs to Jesus. We have even been witness to people, and maybe even guilty ourselves, who invite someone to church because of the greatest of their pastor. Although the pastor may be a good preacher, he should not be the reason for the invitation. Jesus should be the reason for everything. The Pharisees were filled with pride and in the end, it was their ruin. Let us rid ourselves of any sort of pride and remain humble at heart.