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| I don't think it means what you think it means, Caiphas. |
“What do you think?
That he will not come to the feast?”
As if there could be a feast without you, Jesus. The Passover approaches. But your Passover is the true Passover. You are the true lamb of God. These other lambs which are slain merely point to our need for you.
Caiphas was correct when he said "that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish." He probably thought he was talking about the threat of Rome. He thought he was just sacrificing an overly zealous countrymen for the good of the people. But it is was true nevertheless. In your goodness, Jesus, you die so that we don't have to die. You are not executed as a mere criminal, though. You are offered as the most pure sacrifice, of which every other lamb is a mere symbol. You are offered, not to Rome, but to the Father not just for the good of some but for the good of all.
This is why you come to the feast even though "From that day on the planned to kill" you. You, LORD, are fearless in the face of them. You set your face resolutely toward Jerusalem (cf. Luk. 9:51). You and you alone can deliver us from our idols, our abominations, and our transgressions.
Only you can address the root cause of which the subjection of Israel by Rome is a mere symptom. Only you can address the division of man from God and man from man of which even the fracturing of the nation of Israel is only a symptom.
I will make them one nation upon the land,
in the mountains of Israel,
and there shall be one prince for them all.
Never again shall they be two nations,
and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.
Now that we have one prince we can truly be united. This prince is no earthly tyrant. You are the prince of peace. You are the one shepherd who gently guides and makes us "live by the statutes and carefully observe" your decrees. Pretenders to this throne try to unite by power and domination. Rome tries to unite in this way. All such human efforts fail. You offer us the Holy Spirit so that we can live this way. But it is always an invitation. We are always free to accept or refuse. It is not just a one time thing. You are constantly inviting us to come closer. You want to be our prince of peace more and more.
Only with you as our prince do we discover the true unity which only love can ensure. Rome eventually falls but we live on the land you give us forever. This is the power of your covenant of peace. It has this power precisely because you yourself have this power. You put your sanctuary among us and make your dwelling with us. This is not merely external. You and you alone have the power to dwell in our hearts (cf. Joh. 14:20, 15:4).
The greatest Roman emperors and the greatest Jewish leaders are all still under the domination of sin. Until you come to us we are too. The selfishness that sin engenders makes all of our efforts at unity, peace, and love, fail because they are all intermingled with our selfishness. They are external, imposed, forced, and tainted.
This is why there can be no feast without you. Only the lamb can put away sin. Only the prince of peace can guide us to the unity and blessing which sin had locked away.
Never again shall they be two nations,
and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.
You are the lamb of God! We can pass from bondage to sin to freedom in the promised land only because you ransom us. You are the prince of peace. We can dwell secure in the land only because you reign over us.
The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:
The grain, the wine, and the oil,
the sheep and the oxen.
The feast is coming, Jesus! Prepare our hearts!
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