The Gospel
Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.
The Offering
From Rev. Rick Putman
“So from that day on they planned to put him to death.”
There is a price for being a prophet. DEATH! Physical death… Emotional death… Social death… and, yes, even a kind of spiritual death (“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”)
Anyone, everyone who follows Jesus of Nazareth is a prophet in one form or another. As Fr. Daniel Berrigan said: “If you’re gonna follow Jesus, you better look good on wood!”
The question is: What price are we prepared to pay?