Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2736
“Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What shall we do? For this Man does many miracles.” John 11:47.
I WILL make a preface out of the verse preceding our text—“Some of them”—that is, some of those who saw Lazarus raised from the dead, “went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What shall we do? For this Man does many miracles.”
Mr. Whitefield once raised a great storm against himself by saying that man, by nature, was little better than half beast and half devil. That was, certainly, a very strong expression, yet I question whether there are not abundant instances of conduct, on the part of men, which would be a disgrace even to beasts—and which would seem more in harmony with the character of the devil—and, in such cases, it would not be inappropriate if we were to say that man is altogether devil! Certainly, in his natural condition, he is altogether under the power of the prince of the air and, being led captive by Satan, he is oftentimes made to do the very worst of deeds. I am led to make this observation because the two verses which I have just read to you reveal some of the meanest conduct that has ever been recorded in human history!
Here we have, first, a band of common informers—men who stood by the grave of Lazarus and heard that he had been dead four days—and who listened to the objection of the prudent Martha to the taking away of the stone because, she said, “by this time he stinks.” These men had seen Lazarus come forth from the tomb at the call of Jesus. They had observed how the onlookers, at Christ’s command, unwound the napkin and the grave clothes. And they had not the shadow of a doubt that a notable miracle had been worked and that a dead man had been raised to life! One would have thought that the last thing anybody would have done would be to steal away from such a sight as that and go and tell the enemies of the great Miracle Worker in such a way as to excite them to yet greater enmity against Him! Many of the spectators on that memorable occasion were so convinced by what they saw that they became Christ’s disciples, and very properly so—but these other people were only excited to malice and ill-will—and in a mean manner marched off to accuse Jesus to the Pharisees.
Perhaps you say, “Oh, but that happened only once in human history.” Possibly not, but our Savior has never done anything among men but that which is good and kind! His whole life was one of self-denying goodness and His Gospel is a message of mercy, love, peace and truth—and yet there are still many who insinuate all manner of evil against Him and find fault with His followers! No difficult task, alas—not so much out of enmity to the offenders, as enmity to the cause of Christ. O human Nature, you are, indeed, an evil thing when you can act thus meanly!
Nor is this all, for the Pharisees, who were informed of the miracle which had been worked by Christ, present to us another picture of man at his very worst. Here is positively a parliament of hypocrites! They come together as the great Sanhedrim, or supreme council of the nation—the chief priests in their robes and the Pharisees with their phylacteries— the holiest men in all Judea! Ask them and they will assure you that it is so—yet they have met together to oppose a perfectly innocent Man, to say the very least about Him, who has proved, by working a miracle, that He is a great deal more than a man! When they meet together, they say, “This Man does many miracles,” yet they are sitting there, plotting and planning to put Him down. Surely this assembly looks like another form of Pandemonium and, as Milton gives us pictures of all the winged spirits in Hell coming close together into the council with Satan in the midst, I think I see the same thing carried out in Jerusalem! There is the high priest, Caiaphas, in the midst of them—and the Pharisees gather together around him, taking counsel to see if they cannot destroy the Christ!
So, first, there was a band of common informers, and then, a parliament of hypocrites. Next, look at the arguments they use as the reason why Christ is to be put down. Of course it is pretended that their desire for His overthrow is the result of their zeal for the public good. It is still often the case that when a man opposes true religion, he says that he is prompted to do it by zeal for morality, or a burning desire for the good of his country or his race. So it was with these hypocrites in Jerusalem. In effect, they said, “If this Man goes on working miracles, and we do not stop Him, the people will become His disciples. Then the Romans will believe that a new king is being set up over us and they will pounce upon our nation and destroy it! And, therefore, we must put Him down before they do so.” Now this was a transparent lie, for, first, supposing that Christ had converted all the people of Judea, had He ever in His life said a word about making Himself a king?