John 11,47-53. Judica

✠ In the Name of Jesus ✠

John 11,47-53 1813

Judika (5. Sonntag der Passionszeit)  028 „Vindicate me“ 

Patrick, Apostle to Ireland, † mid to end 5^th cent. 

Gertrude, Virgin, Abbess of Nivelles, Belgium. † 659 

17. March 2013

1. We beseech You, Almighty God, govern and preserve us, Your holy people, for the trials and tribulations of this world are numerous and great. Grant us mercy, and protect us from the world and the devil. May we show mercy to our neighbors in their time of need. Make our days good and peaceful.  Amen. 

2. Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen Jesus raise up Lazarus, believed in Him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said: „What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone 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 understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.“ He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put Him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there He stayed with the disciples. 

3. The ministry of Jesus, His preaching and His miracles all ruffled the feathers of the chief priests and the Pharisees. The chief priests served the temple and performed all the sacrifices mandated under the Mosaic testament. The Pharisees served the local synagogues and ensured the copying of the Holy Scriptures, other holy texts and the traditions of the elders. The Council was the Sanhedrin, a body of 71 chief priests, scribes, rabbis and elders with the high priest acting as the council’s chairman. The Sanhedrin was the Jewish supreme court and the final arbiter in any decision or lawsuit. 

4. The chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin to discuss Jesus. What are they to do with Him? He preaching is forceful; His miracles plentiful and powerful; He has just raised Lazarus, a man dead in the tomb for four days, back to life. Many were now following Jesus. If this continued, the Jewish temple and nation was at stake. 

5. The great fear was that Jews en mass would believe upon Jesus as the Christ. They feared such a mass conversion would bring in the Roman military, for they expected the Christ to be a worldly ruler and a Jewish king who would take the throne of his father David. Such an act would be one of sedition against Rome, who was the de facto and de jure ruler of Judea. They knew the emperor

 would not tolerate a rival king in Judea. The only kings or rulers tolerated were those the emperor had personally appointed in the territory. The Romans were willing to give Judea a measure of self-rule, such as a king or tetrarch who ruled the region under the emperor authority and by his appointment. 

6. The Sanhedrin did not want to lose this limited self-rule. They wanted to ensure that Judea remained partly under the leadership of a man from Jewish stock, and they did not want to have the temple destroyed by the Romans. Their fear was very real as the Romans did eventually destroy the temple and expel the Jews from Judea in 70 after a civil war had erupted to oust the Romans. 

7. Caiaphas the high priest presents their course of action: »It is better that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish«. Simple logic, really, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or as Caiaphas says: the needs of the nation outweigh the needs of one man. The Sanhedrin was quite willing to offer up one man as a sacrifice to placate the Romans and save their own Jewish culture and temple, especially a man whom they accused of being a Samaritan, demon-possessed and a blasphemer (John 8,48.58-59).

8. Their cold, hard logic was also in tune with their sacrificial laws: a single goat was sacrificed once a year on the Day of Atonement for the sins of the entire nation. John notes that Caiaphas did not offer this solution from some sacrificial notion regarding sin and forgiveness, but that as the high priest of the temple the Holy Spirit used him to prophesy that Jesus would indeed be the Heavenly Father’s vicarious sacrifice for Judah and the entire world. Jesus would make Himself the world’s vicarious sacrifice in spite of, and on account of, the Sanhedrin’s venomous opposition to Him. 

9. The Sanhedrin sacrificed Jesus in order to rid themselves of a gadfly who challenged their interpretation of the Mosaic law and the traditions of the elders. Jesus made Himself the sacrifice in order to redeem you, me and all the world from sin, death and the grave. 

10. Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Very Son of God and the Christ, saying: »I tell you the absolute truth: if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death. My Father glorifies Me, and Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad. I tell you the absolute truth: before Abraham was, I am« (John 8,51.54.56.58). The scribes and Pharisees wanted to execute Jesus for these bold statements, but we, His disciples, exonerate Him. Yes, Jesus, You are the Christ and the Son of God; You have the words of eternal life, indeed, You are Life personified, for You can even raise the dead back to life! This true confession is the cornerstone of our faith. 

11. Christ crucified is the Cornerstone of our faith: the Prophets of old prophesied it, and the Apostles of new testified to it. True disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ walk with Him to the cross, walk under the shadow of the cross and, if necessary, die along side of Jesus upon our own cross that the world may force upon us. The path of our faith is not easy: it calls for sacrifice, for suffering, yes, even death. Our faith is one of Lent and Passiontide, but it is a faith along side of and, in the arms of, our crucified and risen Savior. 

12. Many comforting hymn rings in our ears as we travel with Jesus, and one in particular consoles us with these words: 

Our hope is built on nothing less 

than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. 

We dare not trust the sweetest frame, 

but wholly lean on Jesus’ name (LSB 575,1). 

The Church is built on the Name of Jesus, on the very cross upon which He died and the empty tomb which He left in victory. The cross is the strong frame of our redemption and the empty grave is the miracle of our salvation. Jesus did this for you. We are built upon Him and derive our providence from Him. Today we receive His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sin. We receive, profess Him to be the Christ, believe in Him unto salvation and leave this church in the peace and comfort that only Jesus, the Great I am, can give.  Amen. 

14. Let us pray. O Jesus, the Son of Man, You came into this world to serve and to give Your life as a ransom for all people so that we may live in hope and certainty of everlasting life in heavenly communion with You and Your Church.  Amen.    

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you! 

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1771 Oxford University Press. 

Mote, Edward. „My Hope is Built on Nothing Less“. Lutheran Service Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.