Saturday 9 Apr 2022

April 9: John 11:45-48

Key Verse: John 11:48
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.

Devotion:
Many of the Jews who had listened to Jesus believed Him and they continued to want to hear more; but some when to the Pharisees and told them everything Jesus was doing. What did the Pharisees hear? They heard what they wanted to hear and immediately started blaming Jesus for what they thought would happen.

These verses tell of the power the Romans had over the country – they were not just ruling but were dictating what should be happening. Nowadays we would call this tyranny and call for justice to be had; but for the people caught up in the system, they could not see this. Those who were well off because of the Romans continued to want to be well off and obeyed what the Romans asked of them. This led to them doing what the Romans wanted instead of what God wanted!

When the Pharisees saw Jesus was doing some extraordinary things, they knew the Romans would be upset with them if they continued to allow Jesus to do “many signs!” Caiaphas had prophesied this Jesus would come and do many things but also that He would die for the people so the whole nation would not have to perish – Caiaphas knew the people were working against God and he knew something had to be done before it was too late!

Once again the same story was happening – the people were working against God and God was most likely to be upset by this which would lead to bad things happening which would lead to lots of sad people… then they would try calling on God for help and the cycle would continue. God knew something had to be done to break the cycle – this is what Jesus would do to break the cycle!

Points to Ponder:
Do you do what people desire?

Or do you try to do what God desires?