Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish. He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus
no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region
near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his
disciples.
Now the
Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before
Passover to purify themselves. They looked for Jesus and said to one another as
they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the
feast?
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Reflection:
What
would be your reaction if someone you know has achieved greatness? Will you
envy and eventually decide to bring down this person? Or you will be happy for
his/her success and you will even wish him/her more success.
Because
of His many miracles Jesus was already becoming popular with the people
especially the poor. And the ruling authorities (Pharisees) were already
threatened by Jesus growing popularity. So they did what they have to do to
silence Jesus. They hatched an evil plan of killing Jesus with the thought that
if Jesus dies so goes also His popularity. But it did not happen that way, for their
plan did not go as they want it to be.
What if
the Pharisees did not envy Jesus? What if they simply had a dialogue with Jesus
so that they could work hand in hand to help the poor? The Pharisees could have
been an agent of positive change in the lives of the poor. But they chose to
allow the devil to sow envy and greed in their hearts. Hence, they committed a
despicable crime of killing an innocent man in Jesus.
Can envy
and greed do us any good? No it will not do us any good, it will only push us
to do evil just like what the Pharisees did to Jesus. Let us therefore weed out
any feeling of envy and greed in our hearts. Instead of being envious let us be
happy with those who succeed. Instead of being greedy, why not become generous?
- Marino J. Dasmarinas
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