Now the passover and the [feast of] unleavened bread was after two days. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might seize him by subtlety and kill him.
Two days before Israel's greatest feast, the nation's religious leaders sat down to plan a murder. The man they wanted dead was the One the feast had always pointed to. Mark opens his account of the cross with a quiet conversation about timing.
The leaders thought they were choosing when Jesus would die.
The chief priests and scribes were now intent on bringing about His death, little knowing that the time of year and the very day for it had been foreshadowed about fifteen centuries earlier, when their forefathers kept their first Passover in the land of Egypt. Hatred and expediency, however, governed them, so they sought how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death.
Each great event landed on the feast that pictured it.
He is to suffer at the Passover, as the true Passover — the Substance replacing the shadow. In the same way, the resurrection came on the day of the first-fruit sheaf, and the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost.
The New Testament uses the word behind "by stealth" elsewhere for cunning talk. It is the one thing never found in Christ Himself.
This word is often translated "guile" in the New Testament. It expresses cunning, craftiness, and plotting to deceive, and it usually has to do with a person's words. There was no guile found in the mouth of Christ (1 Peter 2:22)... But it was by guile that the Jewish council sought to arrest Jesus and put Him to death (Matt. 26:4; Mark 14:1).
Their need to scheme in secret exposed them.
To carry out their purpose they have to resort to craft — the sure proof that their motives were evil, and that though they may fear men, they have no fear of God.
The plot in this verse is the end of a long story.
The chapter opens with a brief record of the deadly hostility of the leaders of the nation. Already they had surrounded the Lord with words of hatred and fought against Him without a cause. They had repaid Him evil for good, and hatred for love (Ps. 109:2-5). At every step He had shown perfect grace; on every hand He had done only good. He had healed the sick, clothed the naked, fed the hungry, forgiven sins, delivered from the devil and raised the dead. He had warned these men, pleaded with them, and wept over them, but all in vain.
They fixed one condition: any day but the feast day.
The chief priests and scribes sought how they might take Jesus "by stealth and kill him." But they had fully determined that it should not be "during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people." God, however, had already decided long ago that it was to be that day and no other — on the foundation feast of all the feasts, on the Passover, which in fact pictured the death of Christ. So we have God and man at odds. But I need not say, God carries out His own will. He does it through the wicked hands of the very men who had resolved it was not to be so.
Their fear of the crowd was needless.
The chief priests anxiously seek not to have it then, fearing an uproar from the people who so eagerly listened to Him and had seen His miracles. They need not have feared; His hour had come... They would now have their will, but God's purpose was to be accomplished.
Mark names two feasts together: the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The second pictured the opposite of what these men were doing.
That was because they hated Him with a bitter and stubborn hatred. And this was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which pictured putting all malice and hatred and evil out of the heart. But what did they care for that? Their purpose was to rid the world of Him. His very presence was a constant rebuke to their sin and hypocrisy and pride. But how to do it was their problem.
- Set — God fixed the day of Christ's death at the first Passover in Egypt, centuries before the council met.
- Sought — The leaders' need for craft was itself the proof of their guilt: they feared people, not God.
- Spurned — He healed, fed, forgave and wept over them; they answered with hatred.
- Stopped — They resolved one thing: not during the feast. That was the one thing God overruled, using their own hands.
- Substance — They thought they were picking the timing. It was God's: the true Passover died at the Passover, the substance replacing the shadow.
For they said, Not in the feast, lest perhaps there be a tumult of the people.
Two days before Passover, Israel's leaders meet to plan a murder. They rule out the feast day — the one day God had already fixed. So who decides the hour of Christ's death?
Men who are sure of their cause act openly. These leaders had to scheme, and one writer reads that as the giveaway — then explains what they feared.
Now, at last, the time has come when they are determined to take Him and put Him to death. To carry out their purpose they have to use trickery. That is sure proof that their motives were evil, and that though they may fear men, they have no fear of God. Even if the people had little sense of their own need of Christ, they could at least appreciate His goodness and the benefit of His miracles. Afraid of any uproar while crowds were gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover, these leaders decide not to take the Lord on the feast day.
Their fear of an uproar assumed the crowd was loyal to Jesus. One writer weighs that loyalty — and the feast they were so careful to protect.
They hated Him with a bitter, stubborn hatred — and this at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which pictured all malice and hatred and evil being put out of the heart. But what did they care about that? They were cowards, every one of them, base cowards, and they feared the people they despised. They had no need to fear them. Those people could be swayed one way or the other, like young trees in a gale. They were as foolish as they were sinful, and they had no love for the Lord. All they cared about was the bread and fish He had fed them with. They would defend Him if He fed them well, if not — "Let Him be crucified."
Read the verse as a forecast and it fails twice over — on the date, and on the riot they were trying to avoid.
The chief priests and scribes matched their hatred with cunning, yet they were only tools in the hands of Satan. They said, "Not during the feast" — yet it was during the feast. They said, "Lest there be an uproar from the people" — yet there was an uproar of the people. But it was in their favour and against the Christ of God. They little knew the power of the devil to whom they had sold themselves.
The rulers thought the timing was theirs to choose. God had chosen it long before, and the Passover was the reason.
God, however, had decided long ago that it was to be that day and no other — the foundation feast of all the feasts, the Passover, which was in fact the picture of the death of Christ. So here we have God and man at odds. But I need not say that God carries out His own will. He does it through the wicked hands of the very men who had decided it was not to be that way.
Another writer traces that date back to the night Israel left Egypt.
The chief priests and scribes were now set on bringing about His death. They little knew that the time of year and the very day for it had been marked out about fifteen centuries earlier, when their forefathers kept their first Passover in the land of Egypt.
The overruling went further than the day. It reached the hour.
The very thing they did not want, God brought about, because Scripture had to be fulfilled. At the very moment when Israel was sacrificing the Passover lamb, as the Word of God required — I repeat, at that very moment — Christ, the true Passover Lamb, was sacrificed too. "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" is the touching way the apostle Paul describes it (1 Cor. 5:7).
The scheming is not the last word. One writer draws out the comfort in it.
However wicked men may be, God always takes the place He chooses. He never lets the enemy have power to hide His ways from faith, and He never leaves His people without the testimony of His love.
- Cunning — Scheming was their method. It gave them away: they feared men and did not fear God.
- Calendar — They fixed a date to avoid. God had fixed that same date fifteen centuries earlier, at the first Passover in Egypt.
- Clash — Their "not during the feast" ran straight into God's purpose. The council's plan was the one that failed.
- Fulfilment — Israel killed the Passover lamb, and at that very hour the true Lamb died. Their scheming only carried out what Scripture said.
- Comfort — Whatever men intend, God takes the place He chooses. He still leaves His people the testimony of His love.