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 (John 11:47–53 ESV).
Caiaphas was prophesying, but he did not mean to prophesy (or did not mean the prophecy). God gave him words that meant something (see Matthew 1:21; 20:28), but Caiaphas imagined a different meaning. His false narrative is essentially a counterfeit Gospel that superficially resembles the real Gospel.
Scapegoating is common in human societies. When they are troubled, the society insists on its own blamelessness and then finds a marginal person or group on whom they can place the blame. They will insist on a confession, if possible, and then punish the scapegoat. This group action unites and energizes the society. Later, they may even deal with the guilt of their scapegoating crime by elevating the memory of the scapegoat. René Girard, the philosophical anthropologist and historian, wrote a great deal about this, arguing it was the key to understanding the story of Oedipus.
As Richard Cocks writes:
Every Greek hero started out life as a scapegoat. The murder of the scapegoat generates a temporary peace which is later credited to the scapegoat who, it is later claimed, willingly gave his life to preserve the group. Even Oedipus gets partially rehabilitated in Oedipus at Colonus. His semi-deification is implied when near the end Oedipus disappears in a blinding flash.
Notice how closely this narrative resembles the Gospel. The only difference is the real Gospel demands that we admit we are the guilty party and that Jesus was and is blameless. Thus, human societies, to the extent that they are prone to scapegoating, are intrinsically organized around a counterfeit Gospel.
The Pharisees and Priests were no different. Caiaphas was inspired to say words that were true, but in his mind he was articulating the rationale of scapegoating while believers remembered the words as containing the opposite message.
Consider the rebuke of Jesus:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets” (Matthew 23:29–31 ESV).
You might think it would be laudatory to exalt the martyred prophets and disavow killing them. But Jesus sees nothing good in what they are doing. It is a counterfeit repentance. They killed prophets like Jeremiah because they blamed them of the trouble they predicted as if they caused it. Cain likewise “punished” Abel as if he were to blame for his sacrifice not being accepted. Jesus says they are continuing in those sins.
Despite knowing the Gospel, Christian societies have not been immune from the scapegoating phenomenon. We need to remember how natural it is to be seduced by the temptation.
And when we face persecution, we should understand that our persecutors are in the grip of a counterfeit gospel.
typo alert
you might think (not thing)