Today, John recounts a session at the Sanhedrin to form an opinion —and to shape an eventual decision— in the "case" of Jesus. John dates this session before Palm Sunday, and sees as its immediate occasion the popular movement generated by the raising of Lazarus. Without such a deliberate process, the arrest of Jesus during the night of Gethsemane would have been unconceivable.

John expresses with great clarity this striking combination in Caiaphas of carrying out God’s will and blind self seeking: the Cross corresponded to a divine "necessity" and Caiaphas, in making the decision he did, was ultimately carrying out God’s will, even if his motivation was impure and reflected, not God’s will, but his own selfish purposes (attitude which led to the catastrophe of the year 70).

—"Jesus was going to die (...) "to gather into one the children of God who were scattered": here echoes the "key word" of Jesus’ high-priestly prayer toward the unity of all believers within their Church.