Jn 11:45-56
45Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what [Jesus] had done began to believe in him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. 48If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” 49But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, 50nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”
1He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53So from that day on they planned to kill him.
54So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.
55Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves. 56They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”
It is better that one man should die instead of the people. In the Synoptics, Pilate is said to believe that the chief priests handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities out of envy (Mk 15:10; Mt 27:18). Here, in John, the high priest Caiaphas cloaks envy in noble purposes and good intentions: it is better that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.
Many crimes are committed for alleged noble purposes or because of good intentions. Good intentions are never enough. At the end of the day, what matters is what is truly in the heart, where intentions and purposes reside.
Honesty and integrity are the antidotes to envy, one of the seven deadly sins.