Caiaphas valued above all else, power and wealth and social position, and he used religion as the means to maintain all three.  What Judas had vainly longed to possess, Caiaphas was determined to keep and would tolerate nothing that might threaten it.  Such was the natural outcome of having a man of the world as the spiritual head of the People of God.  Caiaphas was a living illustration of Christ’s words, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon” (that is, money) (Catholic edition RSV, Matthew 6:24).

That Holy Week, when Jesus cleansed the Temple, he served God by driving mammon out, but mammon was not driven from the heart of Caiaphas.  And that dual allegiance to God and to the world is not easily driven from the heart of the Christian either.

If we doubt the truth of that, let us ask ourselves what we truthfully believe to be the best things, the desirable things in life – moral and religious principles or personal advantage?  The admiration of others and a high standard of living or personal fellowship with God and a life lived to please him?  Treasures on earth or treasures in Heaven?