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I. THE FUNDAMENTAL MISAPPREHENSION. We must understand clearly the great and fundamental error that underlay all the animosity of the Pharisees and priests towards Jesus. To understand that error makes their relentless pursuit of Jesus more explicable. Jesus talked much of a kingdom, and what should the Pharisees take that to mean unless a visible kingdom - a kingdom the establishment of which must be contested and prevented by the Roman empire, tolerant, of no authority that rivaled its own? If these Jews had only comprehended what the kingdom of heaven really was, they would have spared themselves much anxiety, and been free from the stains of great wickedness. That all men should believe in Jesus meant, in the esteem of the priests and Pharisees, that Jesus would be made a King after the fashion of men. They judged Jesus by themselves. They had no standard by which to guess at his motives and proceedings, save their own ambitious hearts. Each one of them would have been glad to be a king if they could have got the multitude to accept them. They did not yet understand that human government, an exceedingly important thing in its place, is but secondary and subordinate compared with the perfect subjection of the individual to Jesus. If Jesus had had all the authority and power of the Roman empire at his back, he could have done nothing with it.

II. THE UNSUCCESSFUL SCHEME. Successful, and yet unsuccessful. The priests and Pharisees succeeded beyond their hopes. Jesus did not become the sort of king they feared he might be. They got him out of the way, and then they were happy. But, for all that, the Romans did in due season come and take away both their place and their nation. It is the frequent delusion of men that if only they do certain things they will prevent or secure certain other things. The best way of providing for the future is to attend to present truth and present duty.

III. THE UNCONSCIOUS PROPHET. Caiaphas knew full well how popular Jesus was in many quarters, and what a hold he had on the people in the country districts, so to speak. No doubt the national party was in a dilemma to begin with, and to this was added the deep feeling in the hearts of many that to attack him was to attack a really good Man. They would not have hesitated for a moment if he had been a mere demagogue, but being what he was they did hesitate. So Caiaphas comes to the front with what, from his point of view, was a statesmanlike proposition enough. What he says amounts to this, "We must not think of the character of the one, but the necessities of the many." You do not hesitate to demolish a fine building and scatter its contents if that will stop the burning down of many streets. And the Father of Jesus has the same principle underlying his plans, only it is a principle carried out with true wisdom and perfect success. - Y.

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KJV: But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.

WEB: But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done.