lenten blog | April 5, 2025

And Jesus was gone

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for April 5th:  Exodus 12:21-27; Psalm 126; and John 11:45-57.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

The ancient Romans were quite practical.  They could conquer vast stretches of land, but the question then became how to hold and control it.  They realized that if they partnered with the local aristocracy, if they shared governing with them, then they could maintain control efficiently.  The wealthy and powerful of any given region were so concerned with maintaining their privileges that they would work even with conquerors in order to maintain the beneficial status quo. 

When Jesus was born, either Herod or one of his three sons ruled the territory of His birth on behalf of the Romans.  Before Jesus was a teenager, the Romans removed Archelaus as the ruler of Judea and Samaria, and replaced him with Roman governors.  With the Herod family removed, local administration was transferred to the Jerusalem Temple and its authorities.  Where once the Roman puppets were the Herods, now those puppets were the Jerusalem Temple authorities.  The Temple took on economic and political power.  This power was shared primarily by the High Priest, priests and Sanhedrin, especially the Sadducees.

This is the background for Caiaphas’ statement in today’s Gospel.  As High Priest, Caiaphas was worried about protecting the grandeur of the Temple and the power it wielded.  So when Jesus begins to gain traction even in Jerusalem, and when Jesus’ gospel is seen as a provocation to the Roman dominance and the stability they demanded, the Jewish authorities empowered by the Roman Empire worry that this will lead to the destruction of the Temple and the nation … and to their positions of privilege and wealth. 

Caiaphas is brutally practical in his assessment:  “‘‘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.’”  This is not a judgment against Jesus per se.  This is a political calculation that sacrifices Jesus.  Jesus does not need to be guilty.  Jesus needs to be offered as a sacrifice to placate the Romans.  All so that power and wealth may be maintained.  Therefore, serious plans begin to unfold to eliminate Jesus.

Power is willing to do such things to the powerless.  People can be taken off the streets and imprisoned or deported without due process.  Government employees can be fired without due process.  Government funding can be terminated without due process.  All because the powerless can be sacrificed so that the powerful can hold onto their control. 

2,000 years ago this threat forced Jesus to go into hiding:  “Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.”  Why did Jesus choose to do this?  This is a tactical retreat.  Jesus hunkers down with His closest followers in order to prepare them for what He now knows is inevitable.  Jesus realizes that His life is quickly approaching its end, and Jesus needs His disciples to be sufficiently prepared to carry on His ministry without Him.  Once this is done, Jesus will march triumphally right into the maws of His enemies.  He will process ever so publicly into the heart of Jerusalem heedless of the Roman authorities or their Temple accomplices. 

But that public spectacle is for next weekend.  This weekend we are left with the thought that “Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among [them].”  Jesus came into the world to share the beauty and promise of the gospel.  Jesus came to bring God closer to us as one of us for all of us.  And the powerful forced Jesus into seclusion, forced Jesus out of our lives.  What a bleak thought:  the forced absence of Christ Jesus.   

This absence remains a possibility today and always.  We can make Jesus disappear.  In many aspects of society, this happens.  And to create a caricature of Jesus that supports the mistreatment of the powerless and justifies the powerful is not to bring Jesus back into the world.  It may actually push Him further into the darkness. 

I invite you to join us all day tomorrow as church, to give Jesus the opportunity to be present within and among us.  I invite you to join us for worship in the morning at 9:30, and to stay with us in the afternoon for our Lenten Retreat.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected] .

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.