Battle Plan: The Rejected Warrior

For three years, Jesus healed the sick, the blind, the deaf, the crippled. He cast out demons, proclaimed the Kingdom of God and forgiveness of sins. He even brought people who had died back to life.

There are very few times that has happened. It happened three times before Jesus came to earth, and all three happened in a time span of about 60 years, during the time of two of the most fiery, powerful, and miraculous prophets God had ever sent his people.

Elijah raised one. Elisha raised one. And one guy who came back to life when his friends ditched his body in Elisha’s grave, and he came back to life when he touched Elisha’s bones. There’s a guy with a story to tell.

When Jesus raised a young man from death in a village called Nain, there is no doubt people who knew their Scriptures would have seen the connection between Jesus and the great and powerful prophets of old. This hadn’t happened for more than 800 years. This was a return to a time of wonder, when nothing was impossible. Even the dead could come back to life.

And then he raised a little girl from death. One resurrection was something. Maybe the story was a little inflated. But a second time? That’s getting harder to explain away.

Not that some wouldn’t have tried. After all, both of those resurrections happened up in Galilee – a backwater, a country of Jewish bumpkins, easily misled. Not like the spiritual elite in Judea; especially not like the wise teachers of the law who walked the streets of Great Jerusalem. After all, according to the stories, Jesus raised both that young man and that girl on the same day they had died… were they really dead? Maybe they were just… mostly dead. And as we know, mostly dead is still slightly alive. 

Maybe this is why Jesus really blew up all expectations and arguments with his third resurrection miracle. When he raised Lazarus from the dead, there could be no doubts about his power. Lazarus had been dead four days. Lazarus was wrapped up, buried, and sealed in a tomb. Lazarus would already be rotting.

But at a word from Jesus, Lazarus came out of his grave. Alive. Whole. Healthy.

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That moment in time deserves a whole lot of study all on its own, and you’re welcome to read about it in John chapter 11. But right now, I want to tell you the next part of the story.

The raising of Lazarus was a whole new level for Jesus. This was the powerful Son of God stepping up to everyone who was standing against him and making a public show that he was exactly who he says he was. And it happened just two miles outside Jerusalem in the village of Bethany. Guaranteed, everyone in Jerusalem was talking about this. 

And that talk got to the Pharisees and the Jewish ruling council.  They convened a meeting to discuss this new development in the ministry of a man who had been giving them no end of trouble. And as they get together, the first question they ask is, “What are we accomplishing?” That’s a good question to ask when you’re in leadership, right? But their metric is all off. 

“If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him.” (John 11:48) 

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Is this a problem? This should be a good thing, right? This is the warrior from heaven, the champion, the one who has come to defeat sin, death, and the devil. He’s just proved that he is up to the task. Why would it be such a problem for all the people to believe in him?

But that’s not how these guys are thinking. Their entire way of life is being threatened. Their power and prestige. The good opinion of everyone around them. Their belief in their own righteousness. Their importance in the religious and social hierarchy. Their sense of stability that comes from knowing that the way they do religion is right. 

Jesus has a way of threatening these kinds of things. 

We feel that too. When we feel pride in ourselves and our position in life, Jesus tells us that true godliness begins with humility. When we want everyone around us to think we’re awesome, Jesus tells us that the best people are those who think only of others. When we think of ourselves as being basically good people who try hard to do what’s right, Jesus exposes all our sin and failure and lack of perfection and drives us to our knees. When we think that looking and acting like we’re very religious is the same as being truly faithful, Jesus tells us that true worshipers worship in spirit and in truth. 

Jesus takes aim at our hearts.

Just read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7, where he says that those who are truly blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who mourn and who hunger for righteousness. He calls out sins of hatred, lust, vengeance, foolish words, discontent, broken promises, and faithless worry. Everything can be good and shiny on the outside, but if the inside isn’t the same, it’s not enough. “Be perfect… as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) 

It’s threatening to the way of life of anyone who thinks they’re doing good enough, or thinks that by their own efforts they can be good enough. Good enough is never good enough. This is why he came.

But these men, who have devoted their whole lives to the Law and following it on the outside so that they can feel good enough – they are so threatened by Jesus that they make up their minds: Jesus has to die. The man who has been a blessing to countless people, who has given people back their health and wholeness and proclaimed peace with God, the man who has literally just given life back to a dead man… has to die.

All they can think is, “This cannot stand. We have to get rid of him.” They are so hell-bent on putting a stop to everything Jesus has done that not only do they plot to kill him, but they plot to find and kill Lazarus as well! This guy was just raised from the dead, and they want to kill him all over again!

Then again, how do you react to Jesus when he threatens your stability and comfort?

When the words of Jesus knock you out of your place of self-reliance and self-assurance, or when the ruling of Jesus in the world disrupts all your plans and cancels all that gave you a sense of stability… how do you react? 

When the work of Jesus through one of his followers demonstrates the goodness of God and you see the blessings he is pouring out on others, do you cheer? Or grumble?

If someone followed you around all day making checkmarks on a notepad – one side “Loving Jesus” and the other side “Rejecting Jesus” – which side would have more checkmarks? If you sat down with that person at the end of the day and looked through that notepad, how many checkmarks in the “Rejecting Jesus” column would be okay with you? Just fewer than the other side? Only half a dozen? Would even one be okay?

In their rejection of Jesus, the Pharisees proved the prophet’s words to be true. And even if all we had was that one checkmark, we would prove it too. “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:3)

But here’s what you need to know – God already planned for this rejection. God already knew it would happen, and he already wove that rejection into his battle plan. He used it to achieve his ends. 

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While this Jewish ruling council was meeting, plotting to kill Jesus, one of them stood up and said something incredible and profound. It was Caiaphas – the same man who later on would put Jesus on trial and sue for his crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. In this meeting, he stood up and said, “It is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” (John 11:50) 

Prophetic. In fact, the Bible actually says he didn’t come up with this on his own, but that he was speaking prophetically as the High Priest that year. So, even though he was opposed to God, God still spoke truth through him. Because God can do that. He can speak truth through anyone. 

It is better that one man die for the people than that everyone die.

And that’s exactly what Jesus did. Jesus came to be rejected so that in his rejection, he would be placed on a cross. To suffer. To die. To carry the weight of sin and be handed the punishment that sin deserves. God has to punish sin. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be a perfectly just God. But he punishes Jesus in our place. And because of who Jesus is, his life has infinite worth, and so he is the infinite sacrifice that covers over an infinite number of sins. So his death can cover yours.

The prophet Isaiah said this, hundreds of years before it happened. Hundreds of years before he was rejected by the very people that should have cheered his coming. And many more hundreds of years before you met Jesus.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

 Every sin of pride, Jesus humbly took on himself. Every sin of “look at me, look at me,” Jesus carried as an act of service to you. For every self-righteous act, Jesus claimed that sin and took the blame for it. For every time you just went through the motions, thinking that was the same as worship, Jesus bowed before his Father in true obedience and said, “Let my worship count for theirs.” 

Every checkmark in your notepad in the “Rejected Jesus” column has been scrubbed out by the cleansing blood of Jesus. Every damning sin is placed on him. Like sins placed on the head of the scapegoat. One man, dying for the people, so that the rest will not die.

The Rejected Warrior embraces his rejection to become salvation.