The Plot Thickens
There is no more subtle and obtuse motivation for nastiness than power. It serves to be both intoxicating and blinding at the same time. These elements were prevalent in the premeditated and intentional plan of the religious leaders of Jerusalem in the days of Jesus Christ. The target of those plans was this itinerant preacher from Nazareth, whose healing, miraculous ministry had been examined by some, followed by others and opposed by still others.
The religious leaders, called the Sanhedrin, had their minions follow Jesus with inquiry that was really designed to find some way to trap Him into an occasion for arrest and prosecution. The practical difficulty was that it was hard to bring accusation against a man for healing blind people, cleansing lepers, curing deafness and raising people from the dead. Somehow there are just no laws that have ever been written that have found that kind of action to be illegal. So, these Scribes and Pharisees were busy trying to deny Jesus’ power. The Bible records that some of them said that Jesus teaching was just craziness. Other teachers of the law suggested that the actual power for the healing was demonic. None of that made sense to those who had been healed or to those who listened carefully to the Master Teacher. Even logic escapes the mind here because sick people were now well, deaf people could now hear, blind people could see, hungry people had been fed and dead people were now alive. When these kinds of arguments didn’t seem to have an impact on the followers of Jesus, the new retort was to diminish the place from which Jesus came, as if Galilee could not be a place of origination of a teacher like this. Additionally, they questioned Jesus’ teaching because they didn’t know of the place where He might have studied to get such wisdom. Simply put, the religious leaders could not refute either His teaching or His miracles by innuendo or fact or personal witness. They were frustrated and were losing power in a daily way. In the face of that threat, something must be done to get rid of the teacher. The plot thickens.
The straw that seemed to break their back was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It was not resuscitation or a recovery from a cardiac event by skilled CPR technique. Lazarus was dead. Not only was he dead, he was dead and buried and by the time Jesus came on the scene Lazarus had been dead for four days. Worse was the fact that many Jewish friends of the family had come to their home for this time of mourning and were eye-witnesses of the death and about to be seers of the resurrection of the deceased. (The Gospel writer John gives the narrative in John 11: 38-45.)
The motivation for the plotting of these “spiritual leaders” shows up in their discussion. Again John records it: “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” In short, the religious leaders were most concerned about their loss of power. So, in order to keep the power, the miracle worker must be eliminated so that their tradition, their position, their stature and their authority might be maintained. It’s an ugly picture that would lead to the bribery of Judas, the betrayal of Jesus, and His mock trial and crucifixion. These folks would not be comfortable until their enemy was dead.
So in the preparation for the Passover celebration, the plan to kill Jesus was being devised in spite of the ceremonial cleansing process that was happening in the temple. It is the diabolical picture of wickedness contrasted with a cleansing ceremony. It is a hypocrisy that is completely ignored.
What took place on that skull shaped hill outside of Jerusalem was not just a result of impulsive mob action. The crucifixion of Jesus was a plot that grew thicker with every miracle that He did and every lesson He taught. While it was opposed by those who should have recognized it as truth, the quest for personal power overwhelmed the truth of who Jesus was and still is.
So in this season, when the new life of spring and the celebration of Easter reminds us of the miracle that took place with the resurrection, we think about the plot that thickened into the sacrifice of Jesus for the sin of the world. That offering was not unknown or a surprise to the Savior who came into the world to be that sacrificial lamb for all sin for all time. It was a plot that got nastier with every plan. And “they” had no idea that God would use their quest for power to show His. The hill of Calvary has the love of God written all over it. The plot of man had accomplished the plan of the Almighty. (That is probably the one reason I can think of to call the day – “Good Friday”!)
