Caiaphas showed up in John 11, and I wanted to know more about him since I had read his name before. First of all, Caiaphas is like the bad guy of the New Testament. He was the leader of a religious group. They were very smart and rich, and they influenced a lot. And Caiaphas lead all this. These guys did not like Jesus though, because he was a threat to the way they lived and everything that Jesus taught this group could not accept. So, more about Caiaphas. This guy was the high priest of this group. And I've read other verses about him and all he did and who he influenced and it seemed to me that he was one of the most directly responsible people for Jesus' death. Caiaphas is the one that planned Jesus' capture, did Jesus' trial, pressured Pilate to crucify Jesus, and tried to cover up the resurrection. Not a very nice guy. Stick with me here, all this has a point. So, I read all this stuff about Caiaphas, and I was thinking that this guy may have seemed like a really bad guy, but he was really a very important part of God's plan. That if it weren't for Caiaphas, the prophecy wouldn't have been fulfilled. The cool thing to me is that maybe Caiaphas was a snag in God's plan, like God didn't see Caiaphas coming. And that God still found a way to bring about His will, even through Caiaphas' twisted motives. I thought that was really cool. And that God knew what was going on with Caiaphas. Like, Caiaphas covered all of his motives with excuses, and that God still saw Caiaphas' intentions through all of the lies. Ok, back to the actual chapter now.
Ok, the first thing that stuck out to me was verse 7. When I read that, and saw who Jesus was talking to, (Judas) I thought that Jesus was foreboding what was going to happen later. Judas was going to sell Jesus for 30 silver pieces later, and I felt that Jesus said that as a warning. Jesus was saying that you should spend your money on Christ more than anything.
The next thing was verse 25. This verse was a little confusing at first. But after a little while, I think I got it. The first part was "the man who loves his life will lose it." That means to me that if everything to you is all hunky dory and it's all going great and there's nothing more to strive for, then you won't end up doing so great after you die. "But the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." That means that if you must give yourself to Christ, chase him, and strive, so that you "hate" yourself in comparison. But that doesn't mean that you are ready to die, or that we are willing to die for no reason, but only that we are ready to die of it will glorify Christ. If anyone else thinks there's another way to interpret this, please comment, I'd love to hear it.
Another thing was verse 34. I brought this up because a really smart guy I once knew told me something about this verse. The crowd did not understand what Jesus was saying. They thought that he would never die. A lot of the scripture and prophecies that they had at the time said he would never die (for example, Psalms 89:35, 36). They thought they knew everything they could know, and what Jesus was saying didn't work with what they thought. And what that smart guy that I was talking about earlier said was "Don't try to force Jesus into your own mold, he won't fit."
Ok, the last thing that I want to bring up before this gets way to long is verses 35 and 36. This goes back to my other post about John 9, how they also talked about being the light. There were a lot of comments on it, and we were trying to figure out what Jesus meant when He said something like these verses. So, everyone that commented, I think this is your answer. Right here, John 12; 35-36. "Then Jesus told them, 'You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.'" I was glad I found this so I could really have an answer.
It was great sharing this with you guys. Please comment if you have any questions or any other interpretations of something I said. Thanks.
-Joe
Joe- thanks for all that information on Caiaphas! Anyways, I'm just commenting what I got out of John 12:25.
ReplyDeleteHere's what the ESV Bible note about it says:
"12:12 Here again Jesus speaks in absolute terms to emphasize a point: loves his life means 'delights in his life in this world more than in God,' and hates his life in this world mean, by contrast, 'thinks so little of his life, and so much of God, that he is willing to sacrifice it all for God.' Following Christ entails self-sacrifice, shown supremely at the cross."
For me, this basically meant, if I need to stop putting comforts of this world before Christ. Like, putting complete confidence and trust in Him, instead of other people or things. This verse reminded me of the song by Misty Edwards- I Will Waste my Life. It's lyrics say:
I will waste my life, I'll be tested and tried with no regrets inside of me to find I'm at Your feet. I'll leave my father's house and I'll leave my mother. I'll leave all I have known and I'll have no other. I am in love with You, there is no cost. I am in love with You , there is no loss. I am in love with You, I want to take Your name. I am in love with You, I want to cling to You Jesus. Just let me cling to You Jesus. I'll say goodbye to my father my mother. I'll turn my back on every other love and I'll press on yes I'll press on.
This song I feel like sort of comes from different parts of John 12 just because it speaks of being at Jesus' feet, John 12:1-8, and giving Jesus this life, John 12:25.
Anyways, sorry if I sort of went on a tangent but stay with me...I didn't really post about this chapter but I wanted to share something that hit me so hard when i read it and imagined it- John 12:44-46.
And Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me, bleieves not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness."
Just picture Jesus crying out these words. I think that's so awesome and powerful. Anyways, thanks Joe for the awesome post, it was really cool!