Is God in control?

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "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."

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life (John 11:47-53).

Have you ever questioned whether or not God is really in control? As you watch the news, as you read the newspaper, as you get phone calls or emails from loved ones who are facing awful problems, do you get frightened? Are you tempted to wonder if Satan and the powers of darkness are having their way with the world, unchallenged?

If you have ever had such doubts, today’s message is for you. Our Gospel reading is filled with hope and security, in spite of the awful things that evil men are planning. In spite of their intentions, God brings everlasting good out of their dark plotting.

The religious elite of Jerusalem were the priests who served God by running His Temple, and the Pharisees--men who prided themselves on publicly living God-pleasing lives as an example for sinners to aspire to; these men were mostly concentrated in Jerusalem, and had built secure, comfortable lives for themselves as men of influence and respectability. There were only two things that made their lives difficult. One was the occupying Roman garrison, run by the hated foreign governor Pontius Pilate. The Romans were a source of constant irritation. They insisted that the Jews obey laws established by far away Rome; their soldiers worshiped their heathen deities in the very city of God’s holy Temple, and to add insult to injury, they taxed God’s people and spent that Jewish money to support the army occupying their country. But the religious leadership had brokered a deal with the Romans; if the hated foreigners permitted the priesthood and the Pharisees to have day to day influence over the peoples’ lives, they in turn would make sure that the people would not rise up and cause problems for the occupying Roman army. In this way, both sides benefited—governor Pilate could easily maintain the Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome’s rule, and the religious leadership would retain authority and prestige among the Jewish populace.

The other source of problems for the religious leadership was Jesus. Just before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus had arrived in Bethany where He raised His friend Lazarus from the dead. At first, Jesus had confined the bulk of His ministry to the northern province of Galilee, only coming to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration. While He restricted His teachings and miracles to the back country, the religious leadership in Jerusalem wasn’t overly concerned; Galilee was known for it’s willingness to accept a variety of strange new ideas, being as it was a crossroads for trade and far from the orthodox influence of the capital. Presumably, Jesus’ teachings would eventually be swept away by the next new idea to come through Galilee from some foreign land.

But recently, Jesus had been making His way to Jerusalem, preaching and performing miracles as He went. Now He had arrived in Bethany, a town less than two miles from the capital, and it was there that He preformed His most spectacular miracle yet—He raised from the grave a man dead and decaying for four days! Jesus was creating a stir among the people of Jerusalem; many were openly wondering if He was going to declare Himself God’s chosen Messiah and lead them into revolt against the occupying Roman military, in order to restore the Kingdom of David.

The chief priests and Pharisees were understandably concerned. If Jesus stirred up a rebellion, Rome would crush Jerusalem ruthlessly; even if the priests and Pharisees somehow lived through the carnage, Pilate would never again trust in their ability to keep the people peaceful, and they would lose all their special privileges. And so they met in private session, analyzing their options: "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."

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." Caiaphas’ reasoning was simple and logical—the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few—or the one. If Jesus could be removed from the public scene, the people would eventually settle down and fall back into the routine of looking to the Pharisees and priests for leadership. The religious leaders could then keep the people submissive to Roman rule, and thus protect the nation from destruction at spear point. Yes, it was obvious—if Jesus died, all of God’s people would ultimately benefit. This having been decided, they began looking for ways to end Jesus’ life.

It certainly appeared as if Satan was firmly in control; God’s archenemy seemed to have the religious leadership in his pocket as they plotted how to do away with God’s own Son. But how much was Satan really in control? Listen to this startling analysis of Caiaphas’ words: He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. In the midst of plans being hatched to preserve a lifestyle of luxury and prestige, God speaks! God speaks through the mouth of the high priest, and announces His plan for the salvation of mankind!

Caiaphas unknowingly speaks a divine a truth: it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. God’s holy law had condemned the entire world to death. All have sinned; all have earned God’s sentence of everlasting punishment in hell. We all act like the chief priests and the Pharisees; we all strike deals with the enemy, the forces of darkness. We don’t want to lose the comfort of our friends, so when they do something that we know angers God, we keep our mouths shut—and if they invite us to join them in their sinful behavior, we even agree to participate, in order to preserve our friendship. We don’t want to lose the comfort of our lifestyles, so when we become aware that the company we work for overprices its products or sells shoddy merchandise, we don’t quit or take it to management—we quietly do what we were hired to do, to keep pulling in that nice paycheck. We don’t want to lose the comfort of our sinful habits, so we try to act extra good from time to time, thinking that by doing good things for others we can make up for the sinful pleasures that we just can’t bear to part with. We don’t want to lose our comforts, so we make deals of accommodation with the devil—after all, the only one who need suffer is God.

Hell awaited each of us for our sleazy dealings with the enemy. But the God of justice is also the God of mercy—and so He prepared for us an opportunity to be freed of all the back room wrangling that had made us the devil’s pawns. He sent His son Jesus to die in our place. It is far better that this one man die for us, than we all perish in everlasting flames. And so Jesus was arrested, tried and found guilty, not of any crimes He had committed, but for ours. Jesus was insulted, slapped, beaten, whipped and humiliated in our place. He had nails driven through His hands and feet and was executed like the lowest form of criminal scum--in our stead. As He hung on that cross, He suffered all the fury of God’s anger at sin, every bit of the hell that had been reserved for you and me. Jesus died on that cross, one man whose death gifted each of us with a new opportunity for eternal life. It is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.

Is God in charge? In the middle of a secret meeting that plotted the Savior’s death, God spoke of His offer of salvation through the voice of a man who was as far from God as anyone could be. In the Garden of Gethsemane, God took Judas’ betrayal and turned it into the opening act of a drama that would free all of mankind from the curse of sin and death. The 70 elders of the Sanhedrin were opposed to any plan of salvation that involved Jesus; Pilate and his soldiers couldn’t have cared less about the desires and plans of the Jewish God. Yet in spite of all the evil people who eagerly embraced Satan’s whispered suggestions, God brought about the greatest miracle of all history—He ended mankind’s helpless slavery to sin, death and the devil forever. He did this by sacrificing His own divine Son as the ultimate offering for all human sin.

God can bring good things out of any situation, no matter how awful or dark. A child conceived in rape can grow up to become a wonderful preacher of God’s righteousness. A Christian peacefully facing eventual death by cancer can be the inspiration for a relative to seek the Christ who has given such a profound confidence in the coming joys of heaven. God can use the poverty resulting from a job loss or a poor harvest to strip away worldly things that are a sinful distraction and lead a man and his family into trusting exclusively in the care of the Almighty. No matter how much evil Satan plots and plans, God can bring about a good result for those who love and trust in Him above all else.

God is always in control—the victory of the cross is all the proof you need.