Wrong Government

"If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." (John 11:48)

His kind of government just won't work around here. He is too weak to keep the Romans at bay so we have to employ whatever means necessary to maintain our national identity. Preserving our heritage as the chosen people of God is more important than the continued protection of some crazy man claiming ludicrous things about God that contradict clear teachings established over many years of research and calling into question the wisdom of the elders. After all, its up to us to please God by keeping order and peace around here and this man is certainly disturbing the peace and disrupting the established order.

Notice the foundation on which all these assumptions are based. Fear is behind everything these men are seeing and assuming.

• They are afraid of what will happen to their grasp on power if Jesus' way of relating begins to catch on even more.
• They are afraid people will begin to believe and act in love rather than be intimidated by fear, for then the leaders will lose all the handles they have been using to control everyone.
• They are afraid of the Romans who in turn have used force and fear to accomplish conquering the world, and the Jews are jealous of the Roman's power and success.
• They are afraid the Romans will not tolerate love and compassion as competition to their rule of force and will intervene by force to remove the last vestiges of authority these leaders have negotiated so long to occupy.

Their scenario thinking becomes the fact base upon which they are ready to make life and death decisions rather than to seek heaven's view of reality and what God might actually think about what constitutes security.