The Plan to Kill

5th Sunday in Lent – A                                                                       LSB #’s 424, 420:1-4, 420:5-7
Text – John 11:53
 
…from that day on they made plans to put Him to death.
 
THE PLAN TO KILL
  
What would it take for you to plan the death of another human being?   I hope that’s a shocking question, but realize also, I am not trying to encourage you.   I do, however, want you to consider how extreme that is – making plans to put someone to death.   Every human being is a specific creation of the heavenly Father.  Only God can create life.  Satan can only destroy it. 
In the Gospel reading, “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary & had seen what [Jesus] did, believed in Him,   but some of them went to the Pharisees & told them what Jesus had done.”  (John 11:45-46 ESV)   The Son of God had just created life in what had been the dead & rotting flesh of Lazarus.   Yet, that is what triggered the Pharisees:
“So from that day on they made plans to put Him to death.”  (John 11:53 ESV)   The irony is that the very act of raising someone from the dead is the reason they decided to put Jesus to death.  Who’d think that is a workable plan?  They should have predicted that Jesus would not remain dead.    But their master did not care.   His goal is to destroy his own followers. 
It’s not that the Pharisees didn’t realize Jesus could do miracles.  In stressing over what to do about Him, they admitted, “…this man performs many signs.  If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him…”  (John 11:47b-48 ESV)   They believed   that Jesus could do miracles.    They did not want to believe that He was God. 
So, in spite of all the evidence, they simply refused to believe that Jesus was God’s Messiah, prophesied from all the days of old.   They saw the evidence & rejected the obvious conclusion.   Their master encouraged this.   His goal is to destroy his own followers, & it is unbelief that brings eternal destruction.    His plan was working to perfection.    When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it only exacerbated the unbelief of those who hated Jesus.  It was the 7th miracle that John recorded in his Gospel & it was meant to strengthen the faith of Jesus’ disciples.  Unbelief is a harsh & selfish thing that always brings death. 
For the high priest & the Pharisees, unbelief was a hateful & unrelenting thing that demanded the death of Jesus.  In the case of Pontius Pilate, his unbelief was one of willing ignorance, rather than hate, yet his unbelief still led to the death of Jesus.  The contrast between belief & unbelief was highlighted in the chapter prior to the Gospel reading for today:
Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal & kill & destroy.  I came that they may have life & have it abundantly.”  (John 10:10 ESV)   Jesus offers life to us in abundance.   Since unbelief denies Jesus it also denies the abundant life that He offers.   It’s in that sense that unbelief always brings death.  At the very least it minimizes that abundant life that Jesus offers. 
Because we have lived only in the brokenness of this sinful world, it’s impossible even to imagine what the abundant life is that Jesus offers.   The Bible’s brief description of the Garden of Eden, is the closest we can come to knowing.   And because we can’t appreciate the abundant life Jesus speaks of, we also cannot truly appreciate what it is to take a human life. 
Cain never knew the abundant life of Eden & that impacted his willingness to take the life of his brother.  None of us has known the abundant life of Eden & our lack of knowledge certainly affects our willingness to sin.   As we sin, our desires tell us we are choosing what is good, just like Adam & Eve thought that eating of the forbidden tree would be. 
In essence, every sin we as Christians commit is at least a tiny plan to kill.  There’s a large element of our society, Christian & otherwise, that has been raised to promote disobedience – even to actively call for the death of people who simply oppose their ideas.   Given that, it’s tempting to think that fighting fire with fire is the way to go.   The almighty God could have taken that approach, but you already know where all humanity would have ended up.   It is God’s desire that all human beings would be saved, so while we were still sinners, Christ died for every single human being.  Jesus took the punishment that you & I deserved in order to give us a second chance at the abundant life of Eden & of heaven. 
It’s interesting to note that, in spite of his hatred for Jesus, Caiaphas, the high priest, was used by God to offer up the true Lamb of God as the final sacrifice for sin.  As cynical politician, Caiaphas said, “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.”  (John 11:49-50 ESV) 
The next verse that John wrote explains, “He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.”  (11:51 ESV)  And so Jesus did, but not only for the Jewish nation of His day.  Jesus died for the entire nation of mankind throughout history. 
Where all preceding priests offered up a type of God’s lamb, over & over again, Caiaphas, though not even a man of God, did offer up the real Lamb of God.  What Caiaphas spoke as a cynical political realist, God means to be understood in a much deeper & more significant way.  Caiaphas had no idea what he was really saying. 
Yet, as High Priest, he offered up the one true sacrifice that could take all our sins away.  Pure irony it was, & it brought to a close his own & all other priesthoods.   Jesus was now completely fulfilling the role of priest as He sacrificed Himself as God’s Lamb.   In that Lamb we have hope, peace & rest, for all of eternity, no matter who may plot to take our lives away.
Amen.
 
Christ, the life of all the living,  Christ,  the death of death, our foe,  Who, Thyself for me once giving  to the darkest depths of woe:  Through Thy sufferings,  death & merit  I eternal life inherit.  Heartless scoffers did surround Thee, treating Thee with shameful scorn & with piercing thorns they crowned Thee.  All disgrace Thou, Lord, hast borne, that as Thine Thou mightest own me & with heavenly glory crown me.  Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, dearest Jesus, unto Thee.  Amen. LSB 420:1, 4.