Destiny

This morning I want to begin by asking you a question. What is your destiny? What is it that you were made for? What is it that you were born to do? Can you remember a time in your life when you experienced something in which you said, "This is me. This is exactly what I am supposed to do. This is exactly what I was born to do."

Maybe its your career. You were in your teen years or early twenties and you found something that you were really good at. That interest grew and grew until you reached a point in which you said something to yourself that you had never thought before, "I think I could do this with my life."

Maybe it was more of an experience. You experienced an adventure or a person and you just knew that you wanted to follow that dream or become like that person.

Whatever that experience was in your life I want you to think back upon it. Remember what it was like the very first time you realized that you were destined for something. You were destined for somewhere. You were destined to become. Can you remember it? Keep that thought in your brain and process what that felt like as we take a look at this morning's passage.

It's found in John 18:12-14 where the apostle John writes:

"So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him, and led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people." (NASB)

This is a strange passage. Admittedly, this is the type of passage that I typically overlook and read right through it without giving it much thought. Yet, recently as I read this passage of Scripture I was mesmorized for several days thinking about it. I could hardly work. I couldn't wait to talk about it to a friend. So, I emailed him right away. I told my wife about it when I got home from work. I simply could not stop thinking about it. It grabbed ahold of me and said something to me that I had never thought about before.

So, that's what I want to examine this morning. I want us to process these 3 verses of Scripture which lead up to the crucifixion of Jesus. So, let's set the stage. It is the final week of Jesus' life. More precisely, it’s the final few hours of the final week of His life. He has told His disciples that He would be arrested and crucified. He has been betrayed by one whom He had cared greatly for. A close friend. He has been taken away from His friends, bound up in chains. He is being taken to a group of people whom have been looking for a reason to kill Him for a long, long time.

He's taken first to a man by the name of Annas. Annas, we discover from outside texts, was the previous High Priest of Israel. He was the former leader of the Jewish religious party. He had been the highest ruling authority in their religion but now his son-in-law Caiaphas has taken over. Therefore, although he is no longer the "official" ruler he still has a great deal of power.

What caught my attention though, as I began to process these three verses, was verse 14. It stated that Caiaphas was the one to advise the Jews that they should kill one man each year during the Passover feast. This man was to die on "behalf of all of the people." Now, think with me for a moment.

At the outset this is a strange idea to use this festival to execute a criminal but the idea of sins being laid upon another was not strange at all. In fact, the Passover feast was a reminder of how God had passed over them and punished another - namely the nation of Egypt. There was also the practice of a scape goat in which was let out into the wilderness after having placed the sins of the people upon it. Therefore, the practice itself, although odd, didn’t strike me. What did was the timeframe in which it had started.

If Caiaphas was the one to begin this practice, what John is implicitly stating here is that it had not always happened. So, it begs the question "How long had Caiaphas been in office?".

Some research into his reign tells us that he was basically put in charge in 18 CE and finished in 36 CE. Therefore, his reign was about 19 years. I'm not sure about this but I did read that this was an unusually long period of time for reigning as High Priest and some think that it was because he had such a good relationship to the Roman authorities.

But what really struck me was how this played out in Jesus life. Process this with me for a moment. If Caiaphas had only been in office for 19 years then this practice began during the lifetime of Jesus. Jesus would have grown up as a boy going to the Passover feast each year. Year after year he would have gone. Then, somewhere around the age of 18-20 something different would have occurred. The Jewish authorities would have crucified a man for the very first time.

Imagine what must have been going through Jesus' mind. Whether He knew at that time or would learn about it in the future, He saw for the very first time His own destiny. Someday, He would come to Jerusalem and suffer and die on a cross! He saw in front of Him the very same thing that would happen to Him someday. He saw the pain, He saw the agony, He saw the man as He inhaled and exhaled with His body heaving up and down, He might have seen it hang limp and naked after having already died upon the cross.

He saw Himself that day and He saw His own destiny. There are a couple of things that I want you to process this morning as you think about that day. First of all, recognize God's perfect timing in all of this. It was God who had altered the course of history and known that when Caiaphas takes office that this practice will begin. It was God who knew that He must use this evil act that occurred at this specific period of time in history to bring hope to a lost world. It was God who sent His Son at the very specific time that He did in order to fulfill all prophecies including the type of death that Jesus must endure.

So, here's the first question, "What is it about the timing of God that speaks to you today?" What is He trying to do in your life in this very moment? Why has He allowed you to have the experiences you have had in order to bring you to the point in your life that you find yourself today. What is it about the here and now that God may be trying to get your attention about?

Second, and even more important, "What is Your Destiny?". Jesus came to Jerusalem on a festival week and saw the horrific crucifixion of someone whom had been ordered to die by the highest level of authority in the Jewish religion. He saw His own destiny. What is yours?

What is it that God has designed you for? What giftings has He entrusted you with? What expectations must He have for that which He has given? How does He want you to use them? We often think of this as a very hard question. Maybe youre not sure. But maybe you are and you're just not willing to deal with it.

Maybe God has given you a destiny and you have been unwilling to follow it. Today is the day to make that decision, to step out and to declare that God has given you meaning and purpose and a plan for how you are supposed to live your life.

He's given to you... a destiny.