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Jn 18:24 Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.

Luke merely mentions Caiaphas as an historical marker for John the Baptist, as we saw in the previous meditation. Mark doesn't mention him. Matthew gives him a couple of references, but it is left to John to give most detail.

Matthew shows us that Caiaphas was involved right from the start in plotting Jesus' death: “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. "But not during the Feast," they said, "or there may be a riot among the people.” (Mt 26:3-5) The plotting starts in a meeting called by the Jewish leaders, which is held in the palace of Caiaphas; it obviously has his blessing.

John adds detail to that particular meeting: “Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” (Jn 11:47-50) There John shows us that Caiaphas was there in the midst of this meeting and came right out with it – it is better for one man to die than the nation rebels and is destroyed by Rome (implied). Older versions say, instead of ‘it is better', ‘it is more expedient'. Expediency is what politics often works with, and that has little to do with the truth!

When it comes to the arrest and trial Matthew records, “Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled…… The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.” (Mt 26:57,59,60) which is exactly true but he misses out on the fact that they first took Jesus to Annas. Thus John records, “They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people,” (Jn 18:12 -14) to set the record straight.

Matthew gave a good coverage of Jesus' interrogation by the high priest (see Mt 26:57-66) and so John doesn't bother to cover it. He simply provides the link, “Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor.” (Jn 18:28) We might consider why these two reporters cover what they cover. Matthew seems to cover the basics of the situation but John wrote a lot later and was also known by the high priest (see Jn 18:15 ,16) and had access to the palace, possibly with family connections, and would have picked up some of the detail from insiders there.

So, we are left with a picture of the high priest in office, equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England , the senior post leader of Judaism, living in a palace and being part of the plot to destroy this itinerant preacher who looks like he could upset the political balance between Israel and Rome . Thus he must go!

We saw in the previous meditation how Annas was involved as ‘the power behind the throne', the older man ousted from his position but now exercising influence even though not officially the high priest in place. But now we see Caiaphas, who is high priest in place, planning to act against Jesus even before he has arrived in Jerusalem for the Passover. This is not a casual, off-the-cuff, attack on Jesus, but a premeditated carefully thought out scheme. This is a politician at a most senior level acting “for the good of the country” as he sees it. The only problem is that he is also the most senior religious figure and, we would expect, should be the best example of God's representative on earth. So there you have it: the man who should be the best example of God's representative on earth, acting against God and plotting to destroy God's Son. How wrong can you get!

We mentioned the dangers of institutionalism in the previous meditation, so we don't need to touch it again here, even though it applies. The bigger message or warning here is, how easy it is to get it wrong. This man in power, the most powerful man in Judaism was almost certainly most sincere and utterly convinced he was acting for the good of Israel . Well he was, and for the whole world, but in a way quite different to the way he thought. He was acting as the priest who had to sacrifice the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29 ), the Passover lamb to avert the judgment of God and take the sins of the world – but he didn't know that that was what he was doing. He was doing it for a completely different reason. He was doing what he thought was right to protect Israel, but only God can protect Israel, only God can protect the church and the moment we start working in the same way that the world works, we will have gone wrong.

The weapons we use are spiritual, not material or political. We may engage in politics and have some influence in the world, but it will only be true influence if we are doing it at the leading of God. Indeed, in whatever we do, we will only have true influence if we are doing it at the leading of God. There was one thing about this supposed man of God at the top of Judaism – he couldn't hear God. If he had he wouldn't have had the Son of God killed. He would have had to leave that to someone else, someone else who was listening to the enemy.

Now isn't that terrible – this man obviously listened to the enemy who wanted Jesus stopped. Fortunately the enemy didn't realise what God was planning by allowing His Son to die on the Cross, but it was an enemy action. When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, described what happened he declared, “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23 ) This was an act of “wicked men” who with wrong motivation sought the death of the Son of God – and Caiaphas headed them up. What a warning to those of us in positions of power!