Caiaphas, the high priest of that year, declares, “You don't seem to realize that it is better that one man die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed.”
John the Evangelist immediately adds that he was prophecying by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the statement he makes is the fundamental statement of the Christians about Jesus. However, the intention of the person who said it was not right. He is stating his own logic for doing away with Jesus. He thought that if this one man who opposed their views were gone, everything would be just fine. But he must have realized later that everything had gone wrong with him.
On the third day, the guards brought them the report that he had risen. On the fiftieth day, his disciples took to the streets with the declaration, “This man named Jesus, whom you conspired against and had Pilate execute, was the Christ.”
Their troubles didn't end there.
Peter (and John) heals a man who has been begging for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple for years, a man who was crippled from birth. Everyone knew him. He was just a mobility impaired that others carried for so long, but now is jumping around, overwhelmed by the freedom he has gotten. They are accused of preaching about Jesus. Peter and John are arrested and questioned. Peter says that it was not them, but the name of Jesus that healed him. When they examine them, Peter and John are not educated; their claim that they were with Jesus was also true; a man whom everyone knew as crippled is jumping around. They are totally muted against them. Yet, the High priests warn them, "Never again preach in his name."
But then they ask, "is it right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God?" the priestly leadership is completely cut off. They just threaten them further.
The educated, the privileged, the law-experts, the priestly, the powerful - they are the ones who are silenced. On the other side are the uneducated, the powerless, the unprivileged, the fishers, the disabled, the beggars.
Don't you see that a similar upending is happening today? Don't you think that more upturn will happen in the future?
