Page 122 - Gnosis volume 2
P. 122
114
chosen People. It is true that He was one of the Prophets who contributed to the fame
of the community. It is true also that the most spiritual elements of the population were
becoming more and more interested in His doctrine. But the latter was the cause of
many schisms which, on the political plane, were responsible for the weakening of the
State of Judea.
On studying the situation, the Sanhedrin seem to have resolved to utilize Jesus as
the leader of the resistance against the Romans, they went so far as to incite the people
to make Him their King. But this plan came to nought and, logically, it was necessary to
do away with Jesus. For, as His Kingdom was "not of this world", He could only be an
obstacle to the unity of the nation and to the sacred political aims of the Sanhedrin. St.
John has left us an account of this tentative to make Jesus the instrument of national
politics:
Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of a
truth that Prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived
that they would come and take Him by force to make Him a king, he departed again into
30
a mountain himself alone .
So, Jesus declined. Besides, did He not repeat ceaselessly that His Kingdom was
not of this world?
For the Sanhedrin, whose judgment was purely worldly, He had to disappear.
*
* *
30
John, VI, 14-15. This was after the miracle of the feeding of 5000 men with five breads.