The Sanhedrin's Plot to Kill Jesus

Study of John 11:45-54

Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.
— John 11:45-54

God has shown grace to many of the Jews who mourned with His beloved children, Martha and Mary, that they received the greatest blessing they could ever get, salvation in Christ. They have seen God's glory through His Son's raising of Lazarus from the dead and they believed "in Him". Not everyone believed however. Some of them, seeing the miracle as a threat because it has led many to believe, reported to Jesus' enemies what He has done.

They immediately held an emergency council meeting. This council, known as the Sanhedrin, is the highest ruling political, religious, legislative, and judicial body of Israel during the first century. Headed by the high priest, the Sanhedrin is composed of 71 members under two factions often opposed to each other, the liberal Sadducees--chief priests and elders, and the conservative Pharisees or scribes. Some members mentioned in the Bible are Joseph of Arimathea (Mark 15:43), Nicodemus (John 3:1; 7:50), the high priests Annas and Caiaphas (Luke 3:2) Ananias (Acts 23:2), and Gamaliel (Acts 5:34). Even though political and theological enemies, they are united against a common enemy-- Jesus, except for Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who are believers (John 29:38-39).

Instead of repenting and believing in Jesus on account of the news of His resurrecting Lazarus, they were greatly disturbed and became even more hardened in unbelief just like what Abraham said in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31). They do not deny Jesus performing many great signs and wonders because there are so many witnesses, in fact that's what they are afraid of. They argued that "If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him". They do not want to believe and enter the Kingdom of God, they are happy with their own kingdom and they also want to keep their subjects, the people of Israel, inside their kingdom so they want to prevent them from believing and entering God's kingdom (Matthew 23:13).

Theorizing that the Romans will come to squelch a revolution if Jesus gained more followers and hailed as the Messiah, King of the Jews, they thought they could no longer leave Him alone. They fear the Romans will take away their "place and nation". With a feigned concern for public good, their ultimate fear is for their privileges and positions of authority as rulers of Israel to be taken away by the Romans if they let things go out of their control.

But their concern is unfounded as Jesus was no revolutionary. His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), meaning it will not be established through worldly means. Jesus was no threat in the sense they thought to Rome. In fact, Pilate later on couldn't find any legitimate reason to condemn Him. He did not instigate rebellion against their oppressor but instead His kingdom will come through repentance from sin and faith in Him. If the rulers of Israel and the nation as a whole repents, the Messianic kingdom would be established and all the nations of the world would be converted and absorbed in the kingdom. Because of their rejection, the kingdom would be postponed until the second coming of Jesus, which was also according to God's sovereign plan.

Their leader is the Sadducee high priest Caiaphas, who held his office from AD 18-36, a remarkably long time for the period of Roman rule which is evidence of his political acumen. The Romans appoint high priests who serves their political purposes and disposes those who fail like the 3 high priests before Caiaphas who only stayed in office for about a year each. His father-in-law, Annas was appointed on 6 AD and was deposed in 15 AD, but is still a powerful influence behind Caiaphas as it was accustomed of the Jews that high priests hold their position as long as they are alive (Num. 35:25). Both of them are roleplayers in the prosecutions of Jesus (John 18:13,24) and Peter and John (Acts 4:6).

Caiaphas derided the intellect of his fellow rulers as if they didn't have common sense to think of a plan to resolve their predicament with Jesus as he suggested-- to murder one man for the sake of the nation. His faulty logic is utilitarianism, the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority regardless if it is morally good or bad. According to him the end justifies the means, murdering one man is right if it is to save many people. Just like the socialist ideology that prefer the good of the masses than individuals, failing to realize that you cannot do good to the majority by ignoring the rights and welfare of individuals that compose the masses. Now let's not equate this to what God did in sending His Son to save mankind, what God did is sacrifice not murder.

About Caiaphas' appeal to expediency S. Lewis Johnson comments:

"Now you can see immediately that they are not so much interested in truth as they are in privilege. Now that, I think, is very, very instructive.

They were the administrators of the knowledge of God among the nations. God had revealed himself to Abraham. He had through the ages communicated his will to the nation Israel. They were designed to be the mediators of the knowledge of God to all of the nations. They were a theocratic nation. One under God which had as their head their Lord God himself. But later on because of their own privileges, because of expediency, they will be saying to the Romans, because they are so anxious to get rid of Jesus Christ, “We have no king but Caesar.”

In other words, the very revelation of God that gave them their place said to them, “God, Yahweh, is the only king that you have.” But in order to preserve their position, their place, and their nation, they are willing to deny their own theological views. They were full of expediency. Now of course expediency is something that touches all of us in our daily lives. Sometimes it’s expedient for us to deny the claims of Christ. We may be speaking to a friend and when the subject of Jesus Christ comes up we keep quiet. We’re anxious to preserve our relationship, we don’t want to be thought strange. We don’t want to be thought fanatical. And so we keep quiet. We actually deny the things that we are supposed to believe as believers. Expediency, you see, is something that reaches down into the little simple decisions of life."

John the evangelist said that Caiaphas 'did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,

By virtue of his high priestly office in that fateful year of Jesus' death, Caiaphas unintentionally and unknowingly prophesied about Jesus' substitutionary atonement. It's like what is said in the Psalms, For the wrath of man shall praise You (Psalm 76: 10a). He unwittingly declared Jesus' priestly work of offering the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
— Isaiah 53:5-6

But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
— Isaiah 53:10-11

but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
— Hebrews 10:12

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
— Hebrews 10:14

Pilate later on will also declare Jesus' kingly office which He will fulfill at His second coming.

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

— John 19:19

John added that Caiaphas' prophecy is incomplete, Jesus would die 'not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.'

Jesus said in the previous chapter "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd."— John 10:16

Jesus will die not only for the Jews but also for the elect people of God among the gentiles. What God will do to the nation Israel is a microcosm, a miniature model of what He will do in the world as a whole. By restoring the nation of Israel to a right relationship to God He will restore also all the nations to God. Jews and gentiles, Israel and the nations, diverse yet united together as fellow citizens of the kingdom of God (Eph. 2:19).

And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him
(For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
And My God is My strength),
He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
— Isaiah 49:5-6

Currently God gathers His people in the church while a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25) and until the period of restoration of all things on the second coming of Jesus (Acts 3:20-21).

Caiaphas meant to say those things for evil "but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive." (Genesis 50:20)

But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
— Romans 5:15

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
— Romans 5:17-19

Majority of the Sanhedrin agreed with Caiaphas 'So from that day on they planned together to kill Him'. They plan on killing the One who gives life to the dead, the Author and Prince of Life Himself (Acts 3:15) under the pretense of saving the nation. Yet John's readers would sense the irony since by the time this gospel was written in the 90's AD, the sacking of Jerusalem by Rome already happened in AD 70. The very thing they said they were preventing theoretically have actually happened and it's all because they killed their Messiah.

But all this, even the Sanhedrin's plot to kill Jesus, was according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). So Jesus and His disciples retreated for now to a far enough place to be safe and yet near enough to return for the Passover which is coming soon. They won't get their hands on Jesus until the appointed time by God.

Many plans are in a man’s heart,
But the counsel of the Lord will stand.
— Proverbs 19:21

J.C. Ryle observes:

The well-read Christian need hardly be reminded of many such like things in the history of Christ's Church. The Roman emperors persecuted the Christians in the first three centuries, and thought it a positive duty not to let them alone. But the more they persecuted them, the more they increased. The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church.

The English Papists, in the days of Queen Mary, persecuted the Protestants, and thought that truth was in danger if they were let alone. But the more they burned our forefathers, the more they confirmed men's minds in steadfast attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation. In short, the words of the second Psalm are continually verified in this world--"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord." But "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision."

God can make the designs of His enemies work together for the good of His people, and cause the wrath of man to praise Him. In days of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy, believers may rest patiently in the Lord. The very things that at one time seem likely to hurt them, shall prove in the end to be for their gain.