The Plot to Kill Jesus
(Matt. 26:1–5; Luke 22:1, 2; John 11:45–53 )
Mark 14:1-2 NKJV – 1 After two days it was the Passover and [the Feast] of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put [Him] to death. 2 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”
V1 “After two days it was the Passover and [the Feast] of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put [Him] to death.”
Collaboration is good when it is approved by God, but when it is evil, it is cursed by God. The chief priests were the leading priests. Most were members of the Great Sanhedrin, which was in Jerusalem. Many were Sadducees. The scribes were the writers and lawyers of Mosaic law. Both had their reasons for wanting to kill Jesus: 1) envy, 2) they didn’t follow their laws, and 3) they criticized them by revealing their sins. The passage for envy is Mark 15:10, the passage for their laws is Matthew 15: 9 and Titus 1:14, the one for revealing their sins is John 3:19-20.
The efforts at trickery, gotcha questions, addressed to Jesus have always failed, but they would try and try to find something Jesus said that was against the law as they interpreted it. Jesus was their problem, and their solution was to kill. Unfortunately, this is still the worldly method of dealing with many problems, especially with people who expose or disagree with the Scriptures.
They are fools—Proverbs 14:8 and Proverbs 14:25
They didn’t love the truth—Proverbs 12:17. They suppress it—Romans 1:18.
False teachers since Jesus’s day still follow evil methods—Romans 16:18 and Ephesians 4:14.
God condemns these people—Isa 33:15-16.
Their character is evil—Proverbs 29:10.
Jesus followed the Scriptures—Proverbs 26:24-28.
V2 “But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”
The fewer people around, the better. They knew that the common people supported Him. They are very smart, but it is an evil intelligence.
Comments:
Wuest Word Studies: “Mark says, “Now, it was the Passover and the unleavened loaves.” It was one feast. The word “Passover” is the translation of Pascha, which means “a passing over.” The paschal lamb was the lamb for sacrifice which the Israelites were bidden to kill, the blood of which they were to sprinkle on the door-posts of their dwellings in Egypt so that the destroying angel might pass over their homes without entering and taking the life of the firstborn. The paschal lamb, therefore, was the slain lamb, the death of which was accepted in lieu of the life of the first-born child. Our Lord is the Paschal Lamb in the sense that His death was accepted by the High Court of Heaven as a payment for our sin. As the symbolic Passover was about to be celebrated in Israel, the actual Passover Lamb was entering Jerusalem to fulfill the type by dying on the Cross.”
Ryle’s Expository Thoughts: “The overruling providence of God completely defeated this political design. The betrayal of our Lord took place at an earlier time than the chief priests had expected. The death of our Lord took place on the very day when Jerusalem was most full of people, and the Passover feast was at its height. In every way the counsel of these wicked men was turned to foolishness. They thought they were going to put an end forever to Christ’s spiritual kingdom; and in reality they were helping to establish it. They thought to have made Him vile and contemptible by the crucifixion; and in reality they made Him glorious. They thought to have put Him to death privately and without observation; and instead, they were compelled to crucify Him publicly, and before the whole nation of the Jews. They thought to have silenced His disciples, and stopped their teaching: and instead, they supplied them with a text and a subject for evermore. So easy is it for God to cause the wrath of man to praise Him. (Psalm 76:10.)”
We learn:
- About the evil of very smart people.
- About the wisdom of the Lord Jesus.
Questions:
- How do you deal with envy?
- How do you do when people expose your evil?