John 11:51-52 “Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

There is a prophecy that people never hear much about. Oh certainly the prophecies from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel about the coming savior are known and taught about, but what about the prophecy by the very man who condemned Christ? No, not Pontius Pilot (who was warned by his wife, but that is another topic) rather I mean Caiaphas, the High Priest.

Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus (whom he prophesied about by name) of Nazareth would die to prevent Israel from perishing (literally “apollumi” used in this case metaphorically to devote or give over to eternal misery in hell). Israel, as well as the whole world’s death would occur if Jesus of Nazareth was not killed. Jesus would bring about the salvation of Israel! Caiaphas prophesied this! However he and the rest of the priests did not understand the prophecy fully. They understood that Jesus physical death would prevent the Romans from destroying the remaining tribes of Israel, yet they did not understand that this was more than physical, this was also spiritual. Jesus death would unite the entire world under God! They did not match up this prophecy to those by Isaiah about the Emmanuel. They did not think in spiritual terms because they were too entrenched in the physical, materialistic world!

These highly trained theologians did not understand fully the interlinking of the physical world to the spiritual realm, we can not fault them for this since we too do not completely understand this. The fullness of the dealings between angels and demons, God and Lucifer effect the dealings of man directly, and yet the actions of we humans also effect the spiritual realm!. Proof of this is Job, God and Satan made a bet, Satan did what he could to turn Job, and Job’s faith in God made Satan have to rethink his entire dealings and change the terms!.

The Priests and holy leaders of Christ’s time say God as reactive to man, not proactive! We too often times see Christ as reacting to us and our needs rather than being proactive and already having a plan, already having decided the course that needs to be traveled to best assist us in his inimitable and unlimited knowledge. Yet all we see are the results of His pre-planning, and thus we invariably star to think of God as a reactive force.

Christ Died so that we may have life eternal, all we need is faith. Christ paid the cost that He had knew that He would have to pay at the formation of the world!

How do we change our view of God? Simply through prayer and faith. Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote "Faith is a movement of the entire person away from himself, through the gift of grace; thereby he lays hold of the mercy of God given to him in Christ--in the form of the forgiveness of sins, justification, and sanctification.” Let us therefore claim this great gift that God has offered us. Let us respond to God and in doing so we are gathered together in His name and that of His son, Christ Jesus!

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices;
Who from our mothers' arms hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.