Contemplative Bible Reading

John 11:45-48 (New Living Translation)

45 Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. 46 But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. 48 If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.”

The Pharisees had good intentions. They were also correct in one conclusion:

If everyone believed Jesus to be a King, the Romans would squash them all and destroy the Temple

The Pharisees were wrong in many ways. The big one was that they didn’t understand the spiritual reign of Jesus. The Pharisees saw the miracles Jesus performed. They knew that this was no ordinary man doing tricks, but that his power came from God.

Still, they saw the short-term and the physical. They couldn’t see the greater matters. Us today? We’re the same. We rarely see the greater matters, but fall into the mud of the immediate.