FROM THAT DAY ON THEY PLANNED TO KILL HIM

Ez 37.21-28; Ps 31; Jn 11,45-56
24 MARCH
When the premises are false, any conclusion will therefore be false. Caiaphas does not speak from the truth either of the Scriptures or of the truth of Christ Jesus. He does not speak from the truth of Scripture, because the destruction of the temple and of the nation will occur only when the people break the covenant with their Lord in a definitive and irreparable way. As long as the people are in the Law of their God, obedient to his Word, there will be no enemy army that might destroy the Lord’s people and or his holy temple. The temple was destroyed and the people deported only when everyone refused to be converted to their God, who with all solicitude sent his prophets to remind the obligations of the covenant they made with the Lord. This truth is eternal.

In second place, Caiaphas does not even speak from the historical truth of Lord Jesus. He has never announced himself as a warrior Messiah, a fighter against the armies of the earth or against established power. He did not come to free the man from the cross of power. He came to teach every man how every cross must be carried: the cross of power, of suffering, of poverty, of physical slavery and of death itself. Jesus is the man who bears his cross and teaches every man how to live the cross, without rebelling against it. Never in Jesus is there only one word against one of the mighty people of the earth. Even, still in bands, according to the story of Matthew, he suffered the hard cross of exile in Egypt to have his life saved.

Without the knowledge of either the Scriptures and or of Jesus the Lord and his thought, there might never be true prophecy. The arguments of Caiaphas are all false. When he asserts that “it is convenient for you that only one man dies for the people, and the whole nation does not fall into ruin”, even this word is false. Christ died and the whole nation has fallen into ruin. We know that the temple was destroyed and the people deported. The following is the evangelist’s interpretation: “Jesus had to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to bring together the children of God who were dispersed”. We must distinguish the false motivations that drive Caiaphas to decree the death of Christ Jesus and the fruits of this death that are true. The truth of the fruits does not come from the decree of Caiaphas, but from the heart of Christ who submits to an iniquitous sentence lending it the highest obedience. But here we enter the mystery of history. An iniquitous and wicked sentence, if lived as a true expiation for the sins of the world, always produces a fruit of true salvation and redemption.

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to kill him. So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples. Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves. They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”

History, the daughter and fruit of falsehood, always prophesies the cross for its children. Every cross is the fruit of the falsehood that comes from the sin of the world. Every iniquitous sentence is assumed and lived by the man of God as his way to atone for his sins and those of his brothers. Being Jesus most holy and having no need for atonement for himself, He submitted himself to the cross with very pure obedience, he annihilated and humbled himself and for this humiliation he redeemed and saved the world.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, make us obedient to history.