Perspectives on the Crucifixion: Caiaphas

This is a short fiction piece that I wrote around Easter in order to capture Caiaphas' (The High Priest at the time of Christ) opinion and the difficult position he was in. I think that sometimes it is easy to villainize Caiaphas, the Pharisees, or even the Jews in general based on the notion that they were responsible for "killing Jesus". What we forget when we do this is that God purposefully orchestrated events so that Jesus would die and that no one "killed" Jesus per se but that Jesus willingly gave himself for us.

Caiaphas
I think I am a pretty good guy...I follow every rule in the Torah that I can think of...I even came up with some extra rules and I follow those too...and yet he comes out and calls me and the other Pharisees hypocrites! He taught with so much authority too....he acted like knew the true intent behind the scriptures, like he could dictate the proper way to observe the Sabbath and so much wisdom...he answered every complex quandary that we gave to him....I have memorized every word of the Torah and the Prophets and yet I don't know the scriptures like he does...that was the problem really, he kept challenging our authority, like he knew more about God than we did and that made it difficult to control him. As Pharisees, we are that thin line separating our people from the wrath of the Romans who are just looking for an opportunity to take over completely. No one likes the current situation with Rome but it could be much worse, at least we have the freedom to serve our Lord in peace, but still, the people want more. The Zealots are ready to lead a revolution and if they found someone to lead them....we would all be destroyed. That is why this Jesus must die, so that we can save all of our people...one life for many seems like a good exchange rate to me. That trial was so strange...it was all lies and yet he didn't say a word...Jesus was silent, the same Jesus who was constantly teaching and speaking and acting was completely silent...it was like he was allowing us to do this. I thought for sure that I had the whole situation under control but it's obvious that there is a much greater power than myself at work here..