John 11:45-57
God answered His Son not only by raising Lazarus but also by leading several of the witnesses of this marvellous event to believe in Him (vv. 42, 45). But this miracle, the greatest recorded in this gospel and the last before His own resurrection, is also the one which decides His death, since "from that day forth" sinister plots are hatched which will result in the supreme crime (v. 53). Thus the Jews answer the question which the Lord had asked of them (John 10:32).
The priests make a pretence of fear that in following the Lord Jesus the people will attract reprisals on them from the Romans. But, on the contrary, it is their rejection of the Lord which, forty years later, will be the cause of the destruction of their place of worship (Jerusalem) and of their nation by the Romans (v. 48). God allows Caiaphas’ prophecy to go far beyond the thoughts of this cynical and wicked man. The Lord Jesus is to lay down His life for the nation (for Israel will be restored later) but also to gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad (v. 52). Satan takes away by force and scatters (cf. John 10:12) whilst the Lord Jesus, by His work, gathers together down here those who belong to God’s family.