4 Dec 2015
Matthew 26:3-5
Matthew 25:3: “Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,
4 And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.
5 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
Notice that they were insistent that Jesus not be crucified on the Passover – and yet that is exactly when Jesus was crucified. They did not get their way. God’s plan was carried out in spite of their own desires.
Also notice that it was the chief priests, scribes, and elders – in other words, the leaders of the people – who were behind this. Now, Jesus had to be killed; there was no way around that. He came to die for our sins and that was exactly what He was going to do. But this group of people did not have to be a part of it. They could have accepted Him (as Nicodemus apparently did), but they chose to reject Him instead and to actively seek His execution. That is what sealed God’s judgment upon them and all of Jerusalem – judgment that came in the form of the Roman army.