dying that others may live - 5th week lent saturday

Two points.  In the first part of the gospel John says that many have come to believe in Jesus because of what he has done for his friend Lazarus.  And yet, John also noted, that some people, in their hatred for Jesus, went to the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin to report him to religious authorities.

This is our experience from time to time, the experience of getting pulled from side to side. There are those who would side for us and there are those who would go against us.  If Jesus was a pleaser he would have ended up pleasing no one anyway. For in the end what matters is not what others think.  In the end what matters is what you think, what you believe, what you stand for. Credo means I believe.  It is in the singular first person personal pronoun. In the end you get to decide.

Second, that one man die so that the whole nation will not perish.  These words are from the high priest himself and is considered a prophecy that Jesus would indeed die for many.

Following Jesus is always a call to die to oneself, a dying to self.  

We have a word for it - mortification – a dying to self so that others may live.

This is an invitation for us especially priest and would be priests, a call for mortification – we die so that others may live.