John 11:46-57 The conspiracy

John 11:46-53 Does it not seem ironic that the Jewish leaders who were looking for a deliverer after the type of Judas Maccabeas, and who saw the signs that Jesus performed which demonstrated that God's power was present in Him, were worried that if He went on performing these attesting miracles everyone would believe in Him, and then the Romans would take away their place and nation? What they feared did come to pass, in 70 AD when the Roman general Titus had the city of Jerusalem burned to the ground and the Jews were exiled into another diaspora. But that came about precisely because everyone had not believed in Jesus, and were in a conventional rebellion against Roman authority.

          The intriguing thing about this passage is that even though Caiaphas had a completely worldly view of life, since he was the high priest that year, he prophesied on behalf of God. He prophesied accurately. Somehow God managed to get into his mouth the words that described that Jesus would die and why He would die. And then, bizarrely, having this revelation of God, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, and the high priest began to plan for how to bring this about, how to have Jesus killed. And the next few verses suggest that they weren't even very secretive about this, because Jesus responded to this plot by modifying His behavior.

John 11:54-57 Jesus and His disciples went far from Jerusalem, to a city near the wilderness. The Passover was at hand, and the conspirators were probably planning with the expectation that Jesus would show up in Jerusalem to observe the Passover. Many other Jews went up to Jerusalem early to purify themselves in advance of the Passover, but Jesus did not need to purify Himself because He was clean. The Pharisees were on the lookout, but apparently their conspiracy did not have its tentacles far enough to find out what Jesus actually was doing and what His plan was. But the dark angel that they served knew full well what was afoot.