What the proud do
So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. (John 11: 53)
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.,Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” (John 11: 45-56)
When Lazarus was raised from the dead, as in all the other miracles, Jesus commands it to happen and the miracle takes place. The facts are clear to those who do not oppose Jesus out of prejudice like others. Jesus' enemies, in order not to convert, following Lazarus's resurrection decide to take the final step in their persecution of Jesus: after their (unsuccessful) attempts to destroy the authority of Jesus and after having mocked and isolated Him, they plot to silence Him forever by killing Him legally. This is how the wicked and proud react, that is, with violence, so as not to admit that they are wrong. Lord, help us always to have the humility to admit our own mistakes!
