Fear Factor

Is it right to have one man die to save many?

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples. - John 11:45-54

The way John tells this story, you can almost understand the logic of the Pharisees.

They are frightened that Jesus will cause the Romans to turn against the people and suppress what they might see as an insurrection against their rule.

The crowd is becoming too vocal and large and Jesus is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

So, something must be done or hell will break out.

Fear has set in, and it doesn't matter if Jesus truly is who he says he is.  To them, that is impossible.  That is not an option.  He is just trouble and must be dealt with.

We see this same fear factor working in our time.  People fear the power of the opposition and seek to destroy it, undermine its viability.

It is all about fear.

I seek to destroy what I find fearful.

One could look at history and make a case for what the Pharisees have proposed.  If someone had stopped Hitler before he came to power, World War II might have been avoided.

But we don't know if that would have been the case, do we?

They stopped Jesus, but the movement only grew.

More to come...