So, many of the Judeans who had come to Mary and had seen the things that he had done believed in him. But some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together and said ‘ What shall we do given that this man does many signs? If we let him do this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy both our place and the people.
A certain one of them, Caiaphas, the chief priest for that year, said to them ‘You do not know anything. You do not even realise that it is better for you that one man might die on behalf of the whole people, than the whole nation perish.’
He did not say this from himself, but being the Chief Priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die on behalf of the nation, and not only on behalf of the nation but also that he might gather God’s scattered children into one. So from that day they resolved to kill him.
Then Jesus no longer went about openly amongst the Judeans, but he went from there into the region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim. And there he stayed with the disciples.
It was near the Jewish Passover and many went up to Jerusalem from the country for the Passover to cleanse themselves. Then they sought Jesus and said to one another, standing around in the Temple, ‘What do you think – that he will not come to the festival? The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if someone knew where he was they were to report it, so that they might arrest him.
O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.
Gertrude the Great