This week, I hope to analyze the people involved in Jesus’ passion as a way of challenging us to see how these people and their actions might shed light on how we, too, contribute to Jesus’ passion in our own time and in our own way. As you read this series of blogs, be asking the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the areas of your life where he wants to work. Remember, it is his job to heal us of our propensity to sin. It is our job to learn how to surrender, to be open, and to cooperate.
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In John 12:10, we read that the chief priests plotted against Jesus. Why? Again, I do not know with certainty, but I can speculate.
On the one hand, there were those priests who were proud, and maybe they didn’t like feeling that Jesus was usurping their power and their influence over the other Jews.
There were likely those who saw Jesus as leading the crowds away from the true faith, and wanted to lead them back to the fullness of Jewish tradition; to the fullness of living out the covenant of God’s chosen people. I mean, let’s face it, bad things happened to Israel when the people of God were not living within the covenant.
Maybe some of them were feeling like sinners despite the fact that they perceived themselves as living the covenant perfectly. These self-righteous ones might have been challenged by Jesus’ message. Jesus said he came to heal the sick, not the healthy. Maybe they were starting to realize that they were sick, and in need of healing. Maybe these feelings were uncomfortable, and they didn’t like feeling uncomfortable.
It is even possible that for some, he was challenging them to review their beliefs about covenantal living against the way they were living their lives. Maybe they didn’t like the discrepancy being pointed out to them.
Spend some time with the Holy Spirit asking him how you try to put Jesus, or at least his teachings, to death in your own life. Be open to where you are living a lukewarm spirituality by living both in the world and living out the covenant incompletely. Ask him to help you understand all of your motives for being Christian. Is there at least a small part that wants to do the bare minimum so as to attain Heaven instead of Hell? Is there a part of you that holds onto what you were taught by your parents? Is it for the friendships that develop at your church events? How much is based on an encounter with Jesus that called you to conversion, and to a life dedicated to knowing and serving the one you love? We all have room for improvement in our lives, and sometimes we need the Spirit of Truth to come in and shake things up. Let him enter, the King of Glory. The fullness of life can only be attained by letting him in more and more fully throughout our lives.
In Him,
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