Stupid Chief Priests
9When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. -John 12:9-11
How stupid were the chief priests? They wanted to kill Lazarus because Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead. Anybody else find that to be an incredibly stupid idea?
3 comments:
Don't be so hasty to call them stupid, Tex. It may seem stupid to us, living in 21st century America. But we're not ancient Hebrews, let alone Chief Priests. I think it's worth noticing that no one there was recorded thinking that way (the apostles didn't say, "Jesus, why are those guys so stupid?", nor did Jesus). So there might be something more to this; or they might have been stupid. But it's worth checking out before making a rash statement like that. :)
Not that I've read it, but Joachim Jeremias' "Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus" might be a good read to help understand the perspective of the priests. That or perhaps Ray VanDerLaan has some thoughts (His website is full of resources on the world of Jesus).
I can think of lots of reasons, in hindsight, that I'm tempted to say the priests were stupid but I know it was more a matter of spiritual blindness, pride, culture, etc. I'm not refering to any of those here.
I'm just shocked at their logic. Lazarus was dead. Jesus raised him from the dead. They want to kill Lazarus so Jesus won't be so popular. What did they think would happen? Didn't they think, just maybe, that Jesus would raise him from the dead a second time?
Of course, I'm sure they didn't see things the same way. It is John stating the fact that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. I'm sure the priests didn't believe that he truly raised him from the dead. I'm sure they were trying to prove to the people "See, he can't raise somebody from the dead. Look at dead old Lazarus over there."
Another aspect to this is that John was writing to people like us, non-Jews, people who didn't necessarily know the customs or culture of the Jews. So perhaps he painted the picture like that for a reason, that we would see the stark contrast and obvious lostness of the priests. Good questions... still thinking.
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