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Episode 131 Know It All Knows Nothing (John 11:49) Ron's Notes

Ron Jones

High priest that year

Caiaphas is high priest for a year and he feels the need to correct the situation. It’s happening on his watch. Jesus is the high priest forever, unelected, unimpeachable, carrying out his duties flawlessly. Compared to Jesus, the high priest sees (the word used here means “to perceive”) less than nothing; most of what he perceives is wrong, yet the words come from his mouth: you (all the other leaders) perceive nothing at all. This is not a good thing to say to anyone on our best day with our best knowledge of our highest competency and clearest eyes.

Before I’m too hard on Caiaphas I have to acknowledge how much I think I see. I think I see everything. I’m pretty sure I see more than anyone else and I’m often willing to let people know. Leadership carries with it a peculiar set of pressures and that pressure effects different unique selves differently. For a certain type of person being the high priest would mean you must see more and more clearly than anyone else, for others it might make them aware of how little they see. Caiaphas, who represents religion, shows what climbing to the top of that pyramid looks like. Religious people all do this. They all believe they see more than anyone who hasn’t gotten to their level. At the very top they can see everything and no one else can see anything. The problem is that the climb to the top of religion leaves us like this - so nearsighted we can’t see God when he taps us on the shoulder. Basically all Caiaphas could see from the top was the pyramid he’d climbed. He knew all about Judaism and nothing about God.

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