To Gather Into One

John 11:45-57

Missing the Plot

Sometimes we can watch a story and understand the events on the surface without understanding what the story is really about.

Consider The Truman Show. On the surface, it is about a man discovering that his life is actually a television program. But underneath is a deeper story about truth and deception, freedom and bondage, and a man who must leave the world he has always known to discover what is real.

Something similar is happening in our passage. The people around Jesus see the events unfolding, but they completely misunderstand how God is working through them.

They think Jesus is a threat to their nation. They think they are bringing his story to an end. But God is accomplishing the central event in the story of redemption. Christ died not just to save individuals from their sin, but to gather a people to himself, reconciling us to God and to one another.

That is the deeper story unfolding in these verses.

The Plot of the Jews.

The response to Lazarus's resurrection. At the end of John 11, Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. The response is divided. Some believe in Jesus, but others report what happened to the Pharisees. Here are people who have witnessed an extraordinary miracle, and they still refuse to believe. The problem is not a lack of evidence. Their hearts are opposed to Jesus.

The Concern of the Council. The chief priests and pharisees came together. “What are we to do? He is performing many signs? If he goes on like this, everyone will believe in him.

They did not dispute his miracles, but worried his popularity would replace theirs. If Jesus continued, their influence and authority would vanish. And if he created unrest, the Romans would intervene and remove their remaining political privileges.

Their concern was not whether Jesus was telling the truth or whether he was fulfilling God's promises. Their concern was how to protect what they had.

Fear, not faith, is driving their decisions. They reasoned in terms of policy and politics, power and position, rather than asking what God requires of them.

There is a deep irony here. They feared losing their place and their nation, but they failed to recognize that Jesus was bringing a kingdom that will endure forever. They were trying to preserve their position, yet they opposed the very One through whom God is fulfilled his promises.

Caiaphas’ Solution, “It is better for you that one man should die for the people that the whole nation should perish.”

For Caiaphas, the issue is expediency. It does not matter whether Jesus is innocent or whether putting him to death is just. If his death protects the nation and preserves their position, then that is what they should do.

But John tells us something Caiaphas himself does not understand. As high priest, he prophesies that Jesus will die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

Caiaphas intends one thing, but God is accomplishing something far greater. This is the same truth Peter declares in Acts 2:23: Jesus was delivered up according to God's definite plan and foreknowledge, yet he was crucified by lawless men.

Human beings are responsible for their evil, but their evil cannot overthrow God's purposes. The council thinks it is protecting the nation by putting Jesus to death. In reality, God is using their wickedness to accomplish salvation.

From that day forward, they make plans to kill Jesus. Jesus withdraws with his disciples until the Passover approaches. The opposition is building, and the cross is drawing near. But what they intend as the end of Jesus' story will become the turning point in God's plan of redemption.

The Purpose of Christ’s Death.

Why did Jesus Christ die? Caiaphas spoke of one man dying in the place of others, although he thought only in terms of political expediency. Without understanding it, he pointed toward the heart of the gospel: Jesus would die for his people.

This was God’s purpose throughout the OT sacrificial system. On the Day of Atonement, the blood of the sacrifice was brought into the sanctuary to make atonement for the people's sins. The sacrifices pointed forward to the One who would bear the judgment our sins deserved.

Isaiah declared: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5–6)

Jesus died in the place of sinners. He bore the judgment we deserved so that we might be reconciled to God.

But John draws our attention to another dimension of Christ’s death. He died not only for our atonement, but also to gather us together as one.

Christ gathers us to God:

Sin separates us from God. We have turned away from our Creator, and we cannot make ourselves righteous or restore the relationship we have broken.

But Christ has done what we could never do for ourselves. He bore our sins, satisfied God's righteous judgment, and accomplished the obedience we could never offer. Through his once-for-all sacrifice, he reconciles us to the Father.

Those who were alienated from God are brought near. Those who were guilty are forgiven. In Him, we are made to be God's people.

Christ gathers us to one another:

Christ does not reconcile us to God as a collection of isolated individuals. He gathers us together as his people.

Paul explains this in Ephesians 2. Christ himself is our peace. Through his death, he breaks down the dividing wall of hostility and reconciles us to God in one body through the cross.

Think about what that means. The cross does not merely deal with our guilt before God; it also changes our relationship with those who have been reconciled to God alongside us.

We who were far off have been brought near. We who were strangers have become members of the same household. We who were divided have been brought together in Christ.

Christ died to make us one. Our unity with one another is not incidental to the gospel. It is one of the things the gospel accomplishes. This is the purpose John identifies in our passage: Jesus would die to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

What does it look like to live as the people Christ has gathered?

The people Christ gathers trust the sovereignty of God.

John shows us that God can accomplish his good purposes even through the evil actions of men. Think of Joseph and his brothers. His brothers intended evil when they sold him into slavery, but Joseph later told them: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20)

We see that same truth most clearly at the cross. The greatest evil of mankind was the crucifixion of the righteous, sinless Author of life.

The council wanted to preserve its position, but God was gathering his people. They wanted to silence Jesus, but God was accomplishing salvation through his death. They thought they were putting an end to Jesus, but God was bringing about the beginning of the new creation.

God's sovereignty does not make human evil any less evil. It means that even human evil cannot frustrate his saving purposes. We do not always understand what God is doing in our lives. We experience suffering, disappointment, and sometimes the painful consequences of other people's sins. But we can trust the God who brought salvation through the cross. His purposes are not defeated, even when we cannot see how he is working.

The people Christ gathers live in union with God.

Through Christ's death and resurrection, we have been reconciled to God and brought into covenant fellowship with him. He is our God, and we are his people. We can draw near to him in prayer, enjoy fellowship with our heavenly Father, and rest in the assurance that nothing can separate us from his redeeming love.

This is the great privilege of belonging to Christ: we are no longer alienated from God. We have been brought into his family and given a place among his people.

The people Christ gathers pursue unity with one another.

Because Christ died to gather his people into one, we must take seriously the unity he purchased. Paul writes in Ephesians 4 that we are to put away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander, and instead be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving toward one another, as God in Christ forgave us.

Notice where Paul grounds this instruction. He does not simply say that Christians ought to get along because that makes for a happier church. He points us back to the gospel. We are to forgive because we have been forgiven. We are to show kindness because God has shown kindness to us in Christ. We are to pursue peace because Christ himself has made peace through his blood.

So what happens when we profess to believe the gospel but harbor bitterness toward another believer? What happens when we refuse to forgive, persist in slander, or allow an old grievance to govern our relationship with someone in the body of Christ?

We contradict the very gospel we profess. We claim to have received the forgiveness of Christ while refusing to extend forgiveness to someone for whom Christ died. We claim to have been reconciled to God while refusing to pursue peace with someone whom Christ is gathering into the same body.

You cannot separate your reconciliation to God from your calling to live in reconciliation with one another. Christ died to gather us into one. We must not treat as unimportant the unity for which our Savior shed his blood.

Of course, unity does not mean that we will never disagree or that we should ignore sin. There will be times when we hurt one another and times when difficult conversations are necessary.

In those times we must confess our sins, speak the truth in love, and seek forgiveness.

But we can never become content with division and bitterness. We must not nurture resentment or use our words to tear one another down. We must instead be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Why? Because the people Christ gathers are being made into one body, under one Lord.

Conclusion

Christ came to show God’s sovereign reign over his people, to reconcile to God those who were separated from him by sin, and to gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

So let us trust our heavenly Father’s sovereign care, even when we cannot understand his ways, we rest in the grace of our Lord, knowing that in Him we have been reconciled to God.

Let us take seriously the unity Christ died to accomplish. We will not always see eye to eye, but by God’s grace, we will be a people who pursue peace, speak the truth in love, and forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven us. Christ has gathered us into one. We are one people, one family, one body, one church, under one Lord. May we live in the transforming grace of our Lord's death and resurrection, united to our Father and to one another in faith and love.