church

INI
Reminiscere, The Second Sunday in Lent
February 24, 2013
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

IT WAS EXPEDIENT FOR JESUS TO DIE
John 11:47-53

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen. Today's text comes
from the eleventh chapter of John ,beginning with the 47th verse, as follows.

47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What
shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this,
everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both
our place and nation.” 49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that
year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is
expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole
nation should perish.” 51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but
being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52
and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the
children of God who were scattered abroad. 53 Then, from that day on, they
plotted to put Him to death. These are the Words.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Whose death at the hands of the Jews was deemed
"expedient", Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Does it seem to you that, the more time passes, the less people want to call
things by their real names? What used to be a garbage collector is now referred
to as a “sanitation engineer.” A person who used to be short is now “vertically
challenged.’ And according to some sources we no longer have illegal
immigrants in this country; we now have only “undocumented workers.”
Perhaps the most outrageous euphemism of all time was coined by the British
secret service during the depth of the cold war. They invented the term
“expedient demise” (or XPD, for short). It simply meant, “to kill someone.” If it
would serve their ends to have someone out of the way, they wouldn’t “kill”
that person, they’d “arrange for his expedient demise.”

“Expedient” means an action that serves your purpose. It accomplishes what
you want to get done. In our text for today, the High Priest Caiaphas uses that
term in reference to Jesus: it is expedient for us that one man should die for the
people. He said that Jesus’ death, though regrettable, would serve a purpose. It
would accomplish something that needed to be done. With those prophetic
words, Caiaphas was revealing two things – on the one hand, the depth of
human wickedness and hypocrisy, and on the other hand the depth of divine
love and redemption. Truer words were never spoken. That’s why our theme for
this morning is:

IT WAS EXPEDIENT FOR JESUS TO DIE
I. It was an expedient way for selfish men to be rid of Christ.
II. It was an expedient way for a gracious God to redeem the world.

The Jewish council in Jerusalem - also called the Sanhedrin - had had just about
enough of Jesus of Nazareth. In recent months He'd been gathering a large
following among the Jewish people. The religious leaders had tried to trap Him
into making politically damaging statements, but that hadn't worked. They'd
done their best to ignore His many miracles - healing the sick, cleansing lepers,
restoring sight to the blind. But in recent days Jesus had performed a miracle
that not even they could ignore: He had raised a man from the dead. Denying
that miracle was going to be a little awkward for them in view of the fact that
the raised man - Lazarus of Bethany - was walking around telling people about
it!

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What
shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this,
everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both
our place and nation. This Jesus character is getting stronger every day. And
we're doing nothing! What if He starts His own kingdom? What if the Romans
come and crush us all?" The council fretted and fumed. Not for a moment did it
enter their heads that Jesus' claims might be genuine - that He might really be
the Son of God, the promised Messiah. All they could think about was their
own comfortable position as the leaders of Israel. This Man was a threat to their
power -and to their paycheck. He must be dealt with. But how?

Well, if the rest of them were afflicted with weakness and indecision, there was
one man who wasn't: Caiaphas, the High Priest and leader of the Sanhedrin.
Son-in-law of Annas and a member of the Sadducee party, Caiaphas was the
most cunning and deceitful of them all. And Caiaphas had a plan. Caiaphas,
being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do
you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people,
and not that the whole nation should perish.” Caiaphas is a crafty one. He uses
the old trick of presenting two extremes - the death of Jesus or the destruction
of Israel - and pretending that those are the only two options available. You
notice he doesn't even mention the indelicate matter of how Jesus would be
killed. Just that He would die. It is expedient, says Caiaphas. Advantageous. It
will be better for everybody if it happens this way. Indeed, from Caiaphas' point
of view, IT WAS EXPEDIENT FOR JESUS TO DIE.

Caiaphas was rationalizing, of course. He was pretending it was an expedient
way to save the nation, when what it really was was an expedient way for selfish
men to be rid of Christ.

Ten days ago, we entered the season of Lent. It's a time of year that confronts
each of us with the same question that confronted the Sanhedrin (and Pontius
Pilate): "What then shall I do with Jesus?" It's a question you have to answer for
yourself. Will you receive Him as the Lord of your life, or will you reject Him,
as the Jewish Council did? Will you follow after Him, or will you run away from
Him, as the disciples did in the Garden of Gethsemane? Will you confess Him
to the people you know, or will you deny Him like Peter did in the courtyard of
the High Priest?

For the Sanhedrin, the decision was easy. For them it was more expedient by
far simply to rid themselves of Jesus. What about you? How would you have
voted if you had been a member of that council? -Don't be too quick to answer.
Do you ever find yourself taking the easy expedient of denying Christ? Do you
set aside time for prayer each day, or is it more expedient for you to skip all that
until Sunday rolls around? Do you read your family Bible faithfully, or do you
find it more expedient to leave it gather dust on the shelf? When someone at
work takes the Lord's name in vain, do you find it more expedient simply to
ignore it, or do you say, "Listen, that's my Savior you're talking about"? When
someone asks you about your religion, do you let your light shine, or do you
find it more expedient to hide it under a bushel? Is your Christian faith gathering
strength, is it effecting more and more parts of your life every day? Or is it
sliding back, getting weaker, fading out with each passing day? Finally you have
to ask yourself the question Is it more expedient for me simply to let Jesus die in
my life? Is that the way I’m behaving?

I asked those questions of myself. I didn't like the answers. That’s why now is
the perfect time to turn that around. Right now is the perfect time to bring our
sins of faithlessness to our God, to beg His forgiveness, and to ask for the
strength to truly follow Christ in our lives. He will not refuse our request. The
Bible says, If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. 2
Tim 2:13.

And that brings us to the second part of our text. For God in His faithfulness
would not allow the sinful plans of man to prevail. He had his own plans. For
Caiaphas, the death of Jesus may have seemed an expedient way to get rid of an
irritating troublemaker. But for God it was something else. For our gracious
God, it was an expedient way to redeem the world.

Caiaphas said, It is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people. As
this fiery man stood in the council chambers and uttered these words, he little
realized the underlying truth of what he said. Far less did he realize the startling
fact that it was God Himself who caused him to speak them!

Recently the President’s appointment of a new Secretary of State has been in
the news. You may have a personal opinion about the candidate himself, but
one thing you can’t deny – when the U.S. Secretary of State talks, people listen.
That’s because, in his official capacity as representative of the United States,
he’s not just speaking as an individual. He’s speaking with all the authority of
the most powerful nation on earth. You know, Caiaphas had an official
capacity, too - he was the High Priest. As such, he represented the nation of
Israel. And whether he knew it or not, his words to the Sanhedrin that day came
on direct authority of Almighty God. Our text says, this he did not say on his
own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would
die for the nation.

What a marvel we have in these words of Caiaphas: It is expedient for us, that
one man should die for the people. With these words, Caiaphas was saying just
what he wanted to say, and giving voice to his own sinister purpose. But in
reality, it was God who was speaking through him that day. If the death of Jesus
seemed expedient to the Jewish council, it was also expedient to the purposes of
God. God was using His High Priest to say just what he wanted to say, and to
give voice to His gracious plan to save mankind. How appropriate that it was
Israel's High Priest who should be the one to hail the coming death of Christ,
the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." Caiaphas couldn't
have uttered one syllable differently if he had tried with all his might!

There's an old saying in theology: "Man proposes, but God disposes." This is a
very great comfort, if you think about it. In secret, behind closed doors,
Caiaphas uttered these words as part of a nefarious plot. He definitely intended
evil. But God took the words of the Jews and the actions of the Jews, and
turned them around. He made them work out to the eternal benefit of His elect.
And by the way: doesn't this happen every day in your life as a believer? Events
swirl around you. Painful and distressing things happen to you - a sickness, an
accident, a financial reversal, the loss of a loved one. Sometimes it's difficult to
see what good could possibly come of these things. But arching over it all is the
gracious good will of your Heavenly Father. He can and does take even the
painful things in your life, and makes them work out for your eternal good
(whether you can see the logic to it or not). And isn't that just what our Lord
promises in Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Yes, Jesus' death was expedient - for God's purpose, as well as for Caiaphas'.
But is it true, as the text says, that Jesus gave His life for the nation of Israel?
Would the Son of God give His life even for stubborn and stiff-necked people
like Caiaphas and his cronies? Yes. And while the vast majority of Jews would
reject Christ as the Savior, the Lord would make good on His promise to
preserve a remnant of Israel for salvation. As he said through His prophet
Isaiah, The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, To the Mighty God. 22
For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, A remnant of them
will return; The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. – Isa
10:21-22.

And what about us? If the Word of God ended there, then non-Jews like you
and me would be left out in the cold. But God's promise doesn't end there; our
Lord has not left us out in the cold. The text says, he prophesied that Jesus
would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation only, but also that He
would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

Yes, this prophecy is for us, too! Truly, it was expedient for us that this one
Man should die for the people. For when Jesus perished on the cross, the sins of
the entire world were atoned for. No sinner is too wretched to be washed clean
in Jesus' blood. Not even you. No sinner has sins too great, or too many, or has
continued in sin too long to be pardoned by Christ the crucified - not even you!
The prophesy of Caiaphas - and the promise of the cross - is for every human
being, including you and me.

I mentioned last week the wonderful inclusiveness of the Gospel promise. John
3:16 says, God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His only-begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The Lutheran writer R.C.H. Lenski once said that this passage is the most
comforting in all Scripture, because it includes everybody. "For even if it had
said, 'God so loved R.C.H. Lenski...', I could not be certain that it was not some
other R.C.H. Lenski who was meant. But it doesn't. It says, 'God so loved the
WORLD,' and I know that that includes me." It includes you, too! We live in an
age where “inclusiveness” is one of the highest goals on every corporate and
social agenda. Well, there’s no one more inclusive than our God! ANY sinners
who realize how wretched they are and want relief from their sins may come to
Him. No matter what your background, no matter how terrible your
transgressions, if you have sins that need forgiveness, God’s love and mercy in
Christ Jesus are for you. Rejoice in His love. Receive His pardon. And thank
your gracious God that you are among the redeemed remnant who will one day
inherit eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ!

A few weeks ago Pastor Schaller and I were discussing various different sermon
series we might use for this year’s midweek Lenten worship. I have a book with
a whole list of suggested Lenten series. Most of them are pretty straightforward,
a few are rather intriguing. One seemed very strange: it was entitled, “Sermons
Preached by Jesus’ Enemies!” As I looked through the texts, I saw it was true.
Here were the words of Pilate's wife: "Have thou nothing to do with that just
Man." And of Judas : "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood."
The chief priests: "He saved others; Himself He cannot save." And the
centurion: "Surely this was the Son of God." And the thought occurred to me
that our text for today would fit right into that series, too. Because today we’ve
heard what is perhaps the most eloquent of the sermons preached by Jesus'
enemies. Caiaphas confessed, It is expedient for us, that one man should die for
the people. It was a good confession, if he did but know it. May each of us join
in that good confession, not as Jesus' enemies indeed, but rather as His beloved
disciples, and as co-heirs with Him of eternal life. AMEN.