REFLECTION: Caiaphas

Today is the first Sunday of Lent and we begin the journey to the cross. It is a road we have travelled many times before - it is familiar - we think we know its landmarks and personalities well. Yet even on familiar roads it is not unusual to see things we haven't noticed before. The journey to the cross can be an eye opener, though of course it demands of us a measure of attention if it is to be so; none of the previously unnoticed features will ever become visible if we are so focused upon the final destination that we fail to stop and stare.

One of the people seen, but who rarely gives us pause on the road, is Caiaphas... because we feel we know him. Caiaphas, the high priest when Jesus was making headlines in Jerusalem. As High Priest, he (aided by the Sanhedrin) had responsibility for the political and civil, as well as religious affairs, within Palestine. He was a sort of Archbishop and prime minister rolled into one. His powers were considerable, but not absolute, for he operated under the jurisdiction of the Roman occupying power. His continuation in office was therefore dependent upon his ability to balance the delicate concerns of Israel's national and religious identity with the stability of Jerusalem and the surrounding area as an outpost of the Roman empire. It was a balance that could all too easily be upset.

It is not then too hard to imagine how threatened he felt when Jesus came onto the scene. He challenged the established orthodoxies, radicalised the interpretation of the Jewish Law, questioned Pharisaic authority, and was possessed of a charismatic personality that compelled people to listen. To Caiaphas, therefore, Jesus posed a threat which every attempt to ridicule and discredit him failed to neutralize. So what next?

"It is better", he said, "that one man should be sacrificed for the sake of the nation as a whole". Caiaphas was concerned that if the work of Jesus continued unchecked it risked some sort of popular nationalistic and religious uprising in Jerusalem. If this happened, Rome would almost certainly take direct action to crush it, remove the high priests power, dismantle the Sanhedrin and perhaps even destroy the temple (the symbol of Jewish national and religious identity). Jesus had to be silenced, an action that might involve some unpleasant and less than honest dealings, some strong nerves and malleable consciences, but, the establishment reasoned, it was necessary for the sake of national security and the good of the people. And that is how a group of 71 respectable Jewish men, religious leaders, teachers, members of the business community, politicians, succumbed to moral relativism and persuaded themselves, on the flimsiest of evidence, to sponsor state murder. They silenced their consciences by magnifying the evidence so that they could maintain in public a veneer of authority and integrity (remember weapon s of mass destruction). It is the all too familiar story of corrupt political power, hubris, and the predisposition to put ideology above people.

The desire to hold on to power, coupled with an inflated trust in the infallibility of one's own right judgement, inevitably leads to a situation where morality and integrity is relegated to second place in decision making. From Mugabe to Blair, from Suharto to Cameron, from Ceaușescu to Putin ... it is easy to construct a list of those in whom the arrogance of power has suppressed moral integrity. But not one of them planned it like that. Mugabe began as a genuine servant of his people. Blair and Cameron were decent men. Similarly, the 71 members of the Sanhedrin, and Caiaphas in particular, were not intrinsically bad. They would not have been elected to office if people had not had confidence in their ability to run nation's affairs. They were public servants - it was service and not self-interest that brought them to power.

But power becomes corrupt when self-serving replaces service of others, ideology trumps rationality and when the arrogant belief that one is right replaces the willingness to listen.

But it is also something more than that, something more fundamental. It is the loss of common humanity that accompanies the corruption of power. From behind their ideological blinkers they can't see human beings. Caiaphas or Putin, they can't see the people, hiding in subways in Kiev, trapped in basements with crying and dying children, desperately buying food or trying to escape the city. Instead they fire out arrogant, self-serving, ideologically driven garbage about it being better for one man to die, or pontificate about NATO or Russian expansionism ... anything to relieve themselves of the fact that the world is not reflecting their own blinkered view of it.

On his journey to the cross Jesus described a different way. He challenged and rejected common notions of power. Among the nations, kings lord it over their subjects and those in authority are given the title benefactor. Not so with you, he said, on the contrary, the greatest among you must bear himself like the youngest, the one who rules like one who serves ... I am among you like a servant. If Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin had applied that principle to their activity, the outcome would have been altogether different. Perhaps, instead of plotting his death they should have enrolled him into the Sanhedrin ... because the most effective antidote to the corrupting influence of power is strong democracy - where, as many people as possible are able to exercise responsible criticism and share in decision making. When dialogue is suppressed by a slap of the hand (as the high priests officer) or the by the crack of the machine gun (as with Putin), power is corrupt. - and I say that as someone who believes in democracy - because the sharing and dispersal of power that is its prerequisite is, in my view, a true and significant reflection of the God who opens himself and gives himself, for loves sake, for the world' redemption.

Caiaphas wanted to retain power. As a result truth was sacrificed to expediency and Jesus became collateral damage. Caiaphas, in trying to gain the whole world, will never be able to wash the blood from his hands .... And nor will Putin.