But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 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 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 temple and our nation.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees got together, they were very concerned. They already had several confrontations with Jesus in the temple. And they were hearing reports of things Jesus had done. The result of these miracles was always the same: more people talking about how Jesus must be the Messiah.
In most of his gospel, John lets us speculate what the motives of the Pharisees are. Here he tells us. The leaders of the Jews fear that the Romans would take away their temple and the nation of Israel. Notice that they were not concerned about what God thought. They did not refer to it as “God’s temple,” but rather “our temple.”
Hmmmm…
So their logic was something like this:
Jesus is becoming more popular.
More people are believing in him.
If this continues… [something will happen that causes] the Romans will take away their temple and their nation.
What was the “something” that they worry about? Would the Romans wipe out Israel because of a man who told the people to “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s?”
No. I think not. My guess (and it is only a guess!) is the Pharisees and chief priests were projecting their own ambitions onto Jesus. They didn’t like to be subservient to Rome. They believed that their temple and their nation held a special place in the world. They expected more honor and respect than they were getting.
Let’s Discuss: What are your thoughts? Why did the Pharisees and the chief priests think that Jesus would cause Rome to take away “their” temple and their nation?
Good discussion point. I think they were probably afraid of a zealot revolt centered around Jesus. The messiah the people wanted was chiefly a political/military savior – this is partly why Jesus shuts up demons and tell some to be silent about healings.
I also think they were threatened in losing their own spiritual authority. People recognized that Jesus taught with special authority, different from the scribes and Pharisees.
Thanks Nathan!
I certainly agree that they were afraid of losing their own authority. It seems clear from the text that they are much more concerned about their own power than they are about God’s will.
Great discussion points indeed! I agree with what has been said so far although I think that the motivation was different for various individuals and that this manifested in unique ways; each to their own degree. That the Pharisees were generally in one accord against Christ though is undeniable. I believe that leveraging politics in their current atmosphere, however, was the most powerful persuasion technique to rally sentiment and action against Christ. This is even if it was for other motivational factors, say out of an envious heart, regardless of the threat they believed Jesus truly posed to Rome and their own nation. This was ultimately what led Pilot to cave, though he (and especially his wife) wanted to free Christ and saw him as innocent. Pilot had already experienced instability and uprising under his rule and he was under threat of being removed from power. If he could not quell this dissent, it was likely his own hide on the line and I find it hard to believe the Jew’s were not using this in their particular strategy. To Jeff’s point about them being more concerned with their own power vs. God’s, they cry “we have no king but Caesar.” Clearly they throw God under the bus while remaining oddly subservient to their worldly masters in order leverage what they could. From my understanding, they were behaving more like politicians than spiritual or even religious leaders. Everything was a power play for them and they would say whatever was needed to remain in or seek greater control. Power in the human heart ultimately corrupts, and that’s one reason why our power is to come from trusting in God’s. We can have peace knowing he is ultimately in control. Just as Christ was able to lay down his life subservient to sinful men, he knew the Father had not stepped off his throne.