1Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, 2"You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified."
3Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. 5But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people."
Jesus had told His disciples of His upcoming betrayal and death. Now He is telling them when it will happen. Jesus did not pick the day, His is not the one who is going to make it happen. But He knows the details of it.
Meanwhile, those who have been plotting to destroy Him are plotting the details. Two other times in Matthew, we read how they are plotting against Jesus. In Matthew 12:14 it says: Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. In Matthew 22:15 it says: Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.
First they were going to try to destroy Him, then entangle Him in His talk, and now kill Him. Even though this is what Jesus needed them to do in order to fulfill prophesy, it was still of their own doing.
It is interesting that they are concerned about an uproar of the people. It could just be that killing Jesus during the feast would be objectionable because it is such evil work during a feast. But I wonder if the objection would have had more to do with the people’s affection for Jesus. Wait till after the feast is over when there won’t be so many people around to try to defend Jesus.
They wanted to destroy Jesus. They were unsuccessful. They wanted to entangle Him in His own talk, so He could destroy Himself in the eyes of the people. They were unsuccessful. Now the only option they saw was to kill Him. And they weren’t doing this for the people, as they knew that the people would cause an uproar. But they were doing it for themselves.
It was just this last Easter as we went to a friend’s church where they did a reenactment of a Passover feast that I came to a new realization. I have always heard of Jesus as the Lamb of God. When I think of a something being a lamb, I picture it as it being new, mild and gentle, all of which describe a picture I have of Jesus. So that is the picture I would conjure up of Jesus when I thought of Him as being the Lamb of God. But as I was reminded at the Passover meal we experienced, there was always a lamb served at the Passover feast. A lamb sacrificed for the feast. For a lamb’s blood was smeared over door posts to mark the homes which would be passed over during the last plague before the Jews were freed from Egypt. The blood of the lamb saved them. Jesus, as the Lamb of God, is more than just a new beginning for us, more than just a mild and gentle God, He is the Passover lamb, whose blood will be shed to save us. For He will be crucified right after the Passover.