Slide 2:
1 It was now two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth, and kill him;
2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the people.”
Slide 3:
It is now just two days before the Passover and Jesus’ opponents want to arrest him and kill him.
They are now searching for a way to arrest him “by stealth” or sneakiness.
At this point it is worth remembering that God the Father is in charge of the events and their timing.
At first glance it would seem that Jesus is succumbing to the will of the religious leaders but in reality the religious leaders are unwittingly following the plan of God.
In the Gospel of Luke chapter 4:16-30 Jesus had returned to Nazareth and spoke in the synagogue.
The people were going to throw him over a cliff.
But God would not allow it so he empowered Jesus to walk through crowd and go on his way untouched.
Clearly, if God had not wanted Jesus to go to the cross it would not have happened.
Slide 4:
In this reading the chief priests and the scribes didn’t want Jesus arrested and have him put in prison, no, their stated reason was to kill him.
Thinking in earthly terms having Jesus arrested and imprisoned might lead to his release.
If he were killed the “Jesus problem” would not reoccur, it would be finished, end of story.
The chief priests and the scribes also expose the fact that in reality they don’t control the people because they are worried about a “tumult,” in this case a riot, because Jesus was more popular with the people than they were.
Their roll, their plot, has been exposed, they are murderers who are motivated by jealousy.
Truth is a secondary issue, for them it is more about pride, political position, power and control.