Daily Devotion for Monday 23rd June 2025

St John 11: 45 – 57

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. Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.  They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?’  Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

Reflection

Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead and was growing in popularity.  So much so that the chief priests and the Pharisees were afraid of what the Romans might do to the Temple and the nation of Israel (v 48).  The threat of the Roman Empire was very real.  The Temple and the nation had been lost before to the power of empires.  Each time the trauma and the fight to regain control became part of the national story – the story of God forming and shaping His people Israel.  No one with any religious or civil authority would want to be ‘that leader’ that lost the Temple and the nation again.  Just the thought was too painful. 

The Roman Empire hangs over the gospel story like a hangman’s noose.  The crucified littered the highways as a warning, designed to intimidate.  “Step out of line and this could be you!”  Empires control populations by encouraging people to turn on one another out of fear of what the imperial systems might do to them.  “If I appease the empire, I will be saved” becomes the mantra.  History tells us this rarely works.  Empires would rather turn people against each other than risk any damage to the imperial structure itself. 

Though they are rarely called empires anymore they are still at work in our world today.  This part of the gospel story reminds us how damaging and divisive empires can be, even causing us to turn on God with the best intentions in the world.  Jesus encouraged his followers to seek God’s kingdom first, to love one another, to share this message to every person, and to welcome everyone into what God is doing among them.  Whilst empires seek to divide, Christ calls us to serve people in our communities and to unite under the banner of God’s kingdom: LOVE. 

Prayer 

God,
when we hear hateful rhetoric,
when we are encouraged to turn against one another,
when we see fear rising in people’s hearts,
help us to respond with truth and love.
Amen