John 11:45–48

Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

At last we hear a reasonable argument against Jesus from the Pharisees. At least it sounds reasonable.

“What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

Commentators generally agree that “place” here means the temple.

But why do they think the Romans will object to Jesus? Specifically, why do they think the Romans will object to the fact that this Man works many signs or that everyone will believe in Him.

This is projection! They feel threatened by Jesus (and His many signs), so they just assume Rome would feel threatened too.

But Rome, which has real power instead of the pretend power of the Pharisees, doesn’t spook so easily. Pilate will later make this point. He’ll only be interested in punishing people who have broken one of the Roman laws, and Jesus hasn’t done that. Working many signs isn’t a problem.

It’s ironic that 40 years later, the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation, not because of Jesus, or of His many signs, but because the Jews decided to break one of the Roman laws (big time) by staging a rebellion.

The Roman response to that rebellion makes Sherman’s march through Georgia look like a vacation tour.

But the big mistake the chief priests and Pharisees made wasn’t projection; it was not trusting God. The key words in this passage are, “If we let Him alone like this.” What’s wrong with letting Him alone? Gamaliel will make a similar point—convincingly—in Acts 5.

And he said to them: “Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. … And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.”

And they agreed with him. — Acts 5:35, 38–40a

We make this same mistake all the time. We feel responsible for things that are not our job. We need to relax and let God run His universe. Don’t invent tasks and responsibilities not clearly assigned by God.

Abraham made this mistake when he “helped” God keep his promise by having a son through Hagar.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Saturday DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.