Unimaginable Prophecies
Most of the time when we hear a prophecy, we now understand the prophecy to be something that God will do to feed His people, or instruct them, or promise the coming of the Messiah. The prophet is one chosen by God to share the Word of God. Most of the prophets are God-fearing and strong in their faith, leaders of the people, and did not want to be prophets.
Now look at our gospel reading again. Who is the prophet, what is the prophecy? Shockingly, it is Caiaphas, a leader of the Pharisees, who gives the prophecy:
…one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish.
Caiaphas cannot imagine the prophetic meaning in his words. He wants Jesus dead to protect his way of life, to get the people to stop listening to Jesus.
But the prophecy as we understand it today is that Jesus will die, yes, but so that all may have eternal life. How little Caiaphas really understands.
His prophecy is truth because God is in control and has an entirely different plan then imagined by Caiaphas. Does that happen in your life, too? You say something meaning one thing, but then God takes it and suddenly it is unimaginable what happens for the good.
The final question of the gospel rings like the death knell of a funeral bell. Will Jesus come to the Passover?
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen