The Desire of Ages
by Ellen G. White
Chapter 59: Priestly Plottings
This chapter is based on John 11:47-54.
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Because of the resurrection of Lazarus, the hatred of the priests against Jesus was intensified, and they were greatly enraged at this new miracle.
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Bethany was so near Jerusalem that the news of the raising
of Lazarus was soon carried to the city. Through spies who had witnessed the
miracle the Jewish rulers were speedily in possession of the facts. A meeting
of the Sanhedrin was at once called to decide as to what should be done. Christ
had now fully made manifest His control of death and the grave. That mighty
miracle was the crowning evidence offered by God to men that He had sent His
Son into the world for their salvation. It was a demonstration of divine power
sufficient to convince every mind that was under the control of reason and
enlightened conscience. Many who witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus were led
to believe on Jesus. But the hatred of the priests against Him was intensified.
They had rejected all lesser evidence of His divinity, and they were only
enraged at this new miracle. The dead had been raised in the full light of day,
and before a crowd of witnesses. No artifice could explain away such evidence.
For this very reason the enmity of the priests grew deadlier. They were more
than ever determined to put a stop to Christ's work. {DA 537.1}
The Sadducees, though not favorable to Christ, had not been
so full of malignity toward Him as were the Pharisees. Their hatred had not
been so bitter. But they were now thoroughly alarmed. They did not [538]
believe in a resurrection of the dead. Producing so-called science, they had
reasoned that it would be an impossibility for a dead body to be brought to
life. But by a few words from Christ their theory had been overthrown. They
were shown to be ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. They
could see no possibility of removing the impression made on the people by the
miracle. How could men be turned away from Him who had prevailed to rob the
grave of its dead? Lying reports were put in circulation, but the miracle could
not be denied, and how to counteract its effect they knew not. Thus far the
Sadducees had not encouraged the plan of putting Christ to death. But after the
resurrection of Lazarus they decided that only by His death could His fearless
denunciations against them be stopped. {DA 537.2}
The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, and they could
not but see that this miracle was an evidence that the Messiah was among them.
But they had ever opposed Christ's work. From the first they had hated Him
because He had exposed their hypocritical pretensions. He had torn aside the
cloak of rigorous rites under which their moral deformity was hidden. The pure
religion that He taught had condemned their hollow professions of piety. They
thirsted to be revenged upon Him for His pointed rebukes. They had tried to
provoke Him to say or do something that would give them occasion to condemn
Him. Several times they had attempted to stone Him, but He had quietly
withdrawn, and they had lost sight of Him. {DA 538.1}
The miracles He performed on the Sabbath were all for the
relief of the afflicted, but the Pharisees had sought to condemn Him as a
Sabbathbreaker. They had tried to arouse the Herodians against Him. They
represented that He was seeking to set up a rival kingdom, and consulted with
them how to destroy Him. To excite the Romans against Him, they had represented
Him as trying to subvert their authority. They had tried every pretext to cut
Him off from influencing the people. But so far their attempts had been foiled.
The multitudes who witnessed His works of mercy and heard His pure and holy
teachings knew that these were not the deeds and words of a Sabbathbreaker or
blasphemer. Even the officers sent by the Pharisees had been so influenced by
His words that they could not lay hands on Him. In desperation the Jews had
finally passed an edict that any man who professed faith in Jesus should be
cast out of the synagogue. {DA
538.2}
So, as the priests, the rulers, and the elders gathered for
consultation, it was their fixed determination to silence Him who did such
marvelous [539] works that all men wondered. Pharisees and
Sadducees were more nearly united than ever before. Divided hitherto, they
became one in their opposition to Christ. Nicodemus and Joseph had, in former
councils, prevented the condemnation of Jesus, and for this reason they were
not now summoned. There were present at the council other influential men who
believed on Jesus, but their influence prevailed nothing against that of the
malignant Pharisees. {DA
538.3}
Yet the members of the council were not all agreed. The
Sanhedrin was not at this time a legal assembly. It existed only by tolerance.
Some of its number questioned the wisdom of putting Christ to death. They
feared that this would excite an insurrection among the people, causing the
Romans to withhold further favors from the priesthood, and to take from them
the power they still held. The Sadducees were united in their hatred of Christ,
yet they were inclined to be cautious in their movements, fearing that the
Romans would deprive them of their high standing. {DA 539.1}
In this council, assembled to plan the death of Christ, the
Witness was present who heard the boastful words of Nebuchadnezzar, who
witnessed the idolatrous feast of Belshazzar, who was present when Christ in
Nazareth announced Himself the Anointed One. This Witness was now impressing
the rulers with the work they were doing. Events in the life of Christ rose up
before them with a distinctness that alarmed them. They remembered the scene in
the temple, when Jesus, then a child of twelve, stood before the learned
doctors of the law, asking them questions at which they wondered. The miracle
just performed bore witness that Jesus was none other than the Son of God. In
their true significance, the Old Testament Scriptures regarding Christ flashed
before their minds. Perplexed and troubled, the rulers asked, "What do
we?" There was a division in the council. Under the impression of the Holy
Spirit, the priests and rulers could not banish the conviction that they were
fighting against God. {DA
539.2}
While the council was at the height of its perplexity,
Caiaphas the high priest arose. Caiaphas was a proud and cruel man, overbearing
and intolerant. Among his family connections were Sadducees, proud, bold,
reckless, full of ambition and cruelty, which they hid under a cloak of
pretended righteousness. Caiaphas had studied the prophecies, and although
ignorant of their true meaning, he spoke with great authority and assurance:
"Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that
one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation [540]
perish not." Even if Jesus were innocent, urged the high priest, He must
be put out of the way. He was troublesome, drawing the people to Himself, and
lessening the authority of the rulers. He was only one; it was better that He
should die than that the authority of the rulers should be weakened. If the
people were to lose confidence in their rulers, the national power would be
destroyed. Caiaphas urged that after this miracle the followers of Jesus would
likely rise in revolt. The Romans will then come, he said, and will close our
temple, and abolish our laws, destroying us as a nation. What is the life of
this Galilean worth in comparison with the life of the nation? If He stands in
the way of Israel's well-being, is it not doing God a service to remove Him?
Better that one man perish than that the whole nation be destroyed. {DA 539.3}
In declaring that one man should die for the nation,
Caiaphas indicated that he had some knowledge of the prophecies, although it
was very limited. But John, in his account of this scene, takes up the
prophecy, and shows its broad and deep significance. He says, "And not for
that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children
of God that were scattered abroad." How blindly did the haughty Caiaphas
acknowledge the Saviour's mission! {DA 540.1}
On the lips of Caiaphas this most precious truth was turned
into a lie. The policy he advocated was based on a principle borrowed from
heathenism. Among the heathen, the dim consciousness that one was to die for
the human race had led to the offering of human sacrifices. So Caiaphas
proposed by the sacrifice of Jesus to save the guilty nation, not from
transgression, but in transgression, that they might continue in sin. And by
his reasoning he thought to silence the remonstrances of those who might dare
to say that as yet nothing worthy of death had been found in Jesus. {DA 540.2}
At this council Christ's enemies had been deeply convicted.
The Holy Spirit had impressed their minds. But Satan strove to gain control of
them. He urged upon their notice the grievances they had suffered on account of
Christ. How little He had honored their righteousness. He presented a
righteousness far greater, which all who would be children of God must possess.
Taking no notice of their forms and ceremonies, He had encouraged sinners to go
directly to God as a merciful Father, and make known their wants. Thus, in
their opinion, He had set aside the priesthood. He had refused to acknowledge
the theology of the rabbinical schools. He had exposed the evil practices of
the priests, [541] and had irreparably hurt their
influence. He had injured the effect of their maxims and traditions, declaring
that though they strictly enforced the ritual law, they made void the law of
God. All this Satan now brought to their minds. {DA 540.3}
Satan told them that in order to maintain their authority,
they must put Jesus to death. This counsel they followed. The fact that they
might lose the power they then exercised, was, they thought, sufficient reason
for coming to some decision. With the exception of a few who dared not speak
their minds, the Sanhedrin received the words of Caiaphas as the words of God.
Relief came to the council; the discord ceased. They resolved to put Christ to
death at the first favorable opportunity. In rejecting the proof of the
divinity of Jesus, these priests and rulers had locked themselves in
impenetrable darkness. They had come wholly under the sway of Satan, to be
hurried by him over the brink of eternal ruin. Yet such was their deception
that they were well pleased with themselves. They regarded themselves as
patriots, who were seeking the nation's salvation. {DA 541.1}
The Sanhedrin feared, however, to take rash measures against
Jesus, lest the people should become incensed, and the violence meditated
toward Him should fall upon themselves. On this account the council delayed to
execute the sentence they had pronounced. The Saviour understood the plotting
of the priests. He knew that they longed to remove Him, and that their purpose
would soon be accomplished. But it was not His place to hasten the crisis, and
He withdrew from that region, taking the disciples with Him. Thus by His own
example Jesus again enforced the instruction He had given to the disciples,
"When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." Matthew
10:23. There was a wide field in which to work for the salvation of souls; and
unless loyalty to Him required it, the Lord's servants were not to imperil
their lives. {DA 541.2}
Jesus had now given three years of public labor to the
world. His example of self-denial and disinterested benevolence was before them.
His life of purity, of suffering and devotion, was known to all. Yet this short
period of three years was as long as the world could endure the presence of its
Redeemer. {DA 541.3}
His life had been one of persecution and insult. Driven from
Bethlehem by a jealous king, rejected by His own people at Nazareth, condemned
to death without a cause at Jerusalem, Jesus, with His few faithful followers,
found a temporary asylum in a strange city. He who [542] was
ever touched by human woe, who healed the sick, restored sight to the blind,
hearing to the deaf, and speech to the dumb, who fed the hungry and comforted
the sorrowful, was driven from the people He had labored to save. He who walked
upon the heaving billows, and by a word silenced their angry roaring, who cast
out devils that in departing acknowledged Him to be the Son of God, who broke
the slumbers of the dead, who held thousands entranced by His words of wisdom,
was unable to reach the hearts of those who were blinded by prejudice and
hatred, and who stubbornly rejected the light. {DA 541.4}
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"The Law of the New Kingdom"
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