Do you ever notice how the villains in the little kid movies might as well be carrying signs that say, “Bad guy ⬆️”? I mean—the villain character in a kid’s movie usually acts shady less than 5 minutes in, and you know who you’re supposed to be wary of as you journey along in the story. But, when we get older—the plot twists take us more by surprise. I will say though: the prince (Hans?) being the villain in Frozen is something I didn’t have on my bingo card that day. He got along so well with everyone, even seemed helpful, but all the while he was doing everything with an ulterior motive. He was several sons down the line of succession in his own kingdom, so he wanted one that seemed easy to take over (by any means necessary). It was something off-script for a Disney movie—🎶“We even finish each other’s…”—“Sandwiches!”—“That’s what I was gonna say!”🎶 But, maybe that plot line was onto something: pay attention to intent cause actions don’t always tell the truth right away. The verse for this post is a group of men who wouldn’t look like villains in 1st Century Rome acting more like villains than that shady prince from Frozen.

Post from June 20, 2023

“👟 RSD 1148 ✅ Verse: “‘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.’” — John 11:48 (NIV translation)

The Message translation: “The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body. ‘What do we do now?’ they asked. ‘This man keeps on doing things, creating God-signs. If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have.’”

This one is lengthy because it’s part of the most important story in the Christian faith. The “he” in today’s verse is Jesus Christ (who was betrayed, beaten, and crucified then died (He did this to save us all from our sins), and who rose from the dead three days later and is seated at the right hand of God (literally right now)), and the “we” in today’s verse are the people who were plotting to kill him.

If you’re familiar with Christianity, you’ve probably heard of Bible heroes. Stories like Daniel in the lion’s den, David vs Goliath, and Noah’s Ark are popular, even in secular culture. The Bible heroes enable us to strive for something with the overarching theme that God “equips the called,” meaning that God can use anyone to do great things. Even in popular culture, people look to David and Goliath for hope that big things can be conquered and impossible things achieved with enough courage and heart (and some help from above 😉). Now, a not-so-lighthearted topic: if you have heroes, you probably also have villains. There are many of them throughout, and today’s verse shows some who are the most dangerous kind—the men who don’t look like villains and wouldn’t if you were in a normal 1st century community (except if you had a God-given gut instinct where these supposed pillars of the community just, for some reason, gave you the “ick”). Villains—the kind who do horrible things while acting like their hands are clean and are morally superior to others are (in my opinion) a special kind of disgusting.

The ones in our verse today are the Sanhedrin, which were the top religious and cultural leaders. They met to discuss Jesus, and they weren’t fans. In their pursuit of whatever, they managed to lie to themselves and others and to convince themselves and others that they were doing what was necessary. Necessary to keep things the way they were, which I think the “power and privilege” part of the Message translation really drives home. Everything the same, especially the hierarchy of their society. Per the part about the Romans: it’s true that the Romans didn’t like a lot of extra social/political/religious movements (especially those that afforded hope to ordinary citizens), and, the Sanhedrin claimed this as part of the reason they would decide to resort to extreme measures…measures that were them plotting to kill Jesus. Their campaign was that this was the only way to go, and these guys held themselves on the moral high ground (and insisted that other people did as well). I’m no expert, but if you’re having to do a bunch of shady back-room deals to accomplish your goal…especially if it involves killing someone…you’re probably not occupying the moral high ground. What we can all take from this: if you’re having to do a lot of mental gymnastics to justify what you’re doing, you’re probably not doing the right thing. When you’re doing the right thing, you do it in front of everybody. Even if the right thing isn’t popular, you stand there and hold your ground. Doing good in the Lord’s name means that you stand there and allow the God-given light from within to show. When these guys sent soldiers to take Jesus, it was at night because they didn’t want things like law and reason and justice to be in the way. By the time daylight came, they had already accomplished enough manipulation to execute an innocent man, the Son of God.

The main point of the meeting mentioned in today’s verse: “If we let Him go on like this…?” What does “like this” mean, you ask? Jesus had restored sight to the blind, enable paralyzed people to walk, given hope and the message of love to thousands and thousands of people, and (I think that same week) had raised a man from the dead (if you’ve heard of Lazarus—that’s him). In fact, learning of that miracle is what prompted this meeting of the head leaders where this conversation took place. Jesus was showing people that miracles and knowing God and that loving God and each other wholeheartedly was open to everyone. You didn’t need a certain status. You didn’t need to be “worthy” because (spoiler) nobody actually is. Everyone has a need for forgiveness and a Savior. Everybody sins (messes up), and everybody has the opportunity to ask for forgiveness, seek guidance from the Lord, and to try to do better tomorrow. What the religious leaders were concerned with was that their way of life would change. Things like nepotism and privilege are how a lot of them got their status, by the way. The idea of some people being inherently more “worthy” than others was en vogue: it wasn’t always a merit-based system, and Jesus didn’t play that game. Jesus made truly knowing God available to everyone. Have you sinned? A lot maybe? Turn to God, and try again. Everyone has the power to turn to God, because it’s God who has the power. You don’t have to be someone “important” in society’s gaze. God loves you and listens to you because you’re you. This was not a popular idea with the (supposed) powers at-be during this time. In some places in the world, it’s still not. Power-hungry people aren’t huge fans of widespread hope.

The Sanhedrin were worried about losing their power and status. And, guess what? So were the Romans. Why else would the ruling empire spend the time and resources inventing new execution techniques (they they used non-sparingly) except to terrify people into submission? And, the Romans spared no expense. Power. From Oxford (on Google), power is “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.” Everyone wants it. It’s normal to want it, to an extent. Everyone likes the idea of at least being able to govern themselves and have some say as to what happens in their future. Where trouble comes is from the part of the definition that talks about other people and successions of happenings in the world. The Sanhedrin was holding onto their power while under Roman rule. The Romans were holding their power against everyone from the Scots to the Germans to the Moors to the Britons—not to mention revolts from whatever group of people who were tired to being “conquered” and civil war within Rome itself (who would’ve thought treating people like poop emoji would lead to things like that?).

Every person who is power-hungry wants their status and their prestige is so afraid of losing that power, partially because that’s how they see their worth. Want to know the irony? They were always worth something because they are human, and they never really “had” power because they are human. Nobody does. Power is only given or allowed. And, as for being prestigious because of some perceived status: “prestige” actually comes from a French word meaning “illusion” or “deceit,” and, as a hippie, that’s one of my favorite facts. Matthew 4:4 tells us that, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The “mouth of God” means that it’s God who has the power. Everything anyone can dream or hope or do is only by the grace of God (who continually invites us to come to Him in prayer with our needs). Yes, He gives us free will, but don’t let that confuse you: God is all-powerful (see the omni list from a few days ago), and “His ways are not our ways,” so don’t spend too much time trying to figure out how God sees things (it’s unfigureoutable). So, nothing apart from God actually has power (not even death, as Jesus shows us in His Resurrection).

Having no power isn’t a cozy feeling (the times you feel “powerless” in your life just suck). So, why am I about to phrase it like having no power is a good thing? Because God gives you the power to do things. You have the power over your actions. You have the power to make decisions. You do have power because the One who actually has all the power is the same One who thought you were worth dying for. Jesus could’ve gotten Himself out of the Crucifixion (quite easily, in fact), but He (better than anybody) knew that the world needed a Savior. Today’s verse reflection talked a lot about the villains, but, since Jesus died for all of our sins, are we not also villains from time to time? Granted, certainly not to that extent, but we’ve all had times where we’ve lied, we’ve been mean, we’ve been complacent to someone else being hurtful to another—we’ve all done things we’re not proud of and when we’ve been not great humans. But, we are forgiven because of the love of Jesus Christ. Jesus died for everyone, so that means He died for each one. Every one of us is each one of us. And, here’s the kicker: if you (yes, you who’s reading this right now) were going to be the literal only person in existence after the Crucifixion, like, it was just going to be you and nobody else (and after you the world would end), Jesus still would’ve wanted to be your Savior. He still would’ve gone through all of that. All of that for one person. For you. What greater status could you ever achieve?

If you’re still reading, here’s a little something from one of my favorite hymns (yes, it’s a Christmas carol, but I think it brings it home nicely).
“Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of Earth, born to give them second birth.””