“Not During the Feast”
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, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.” –Mark 14:1, 2
Tuesday is finally over. The events of that day have been so dramatic that the religious authorities are finally formulating a plan to bring about their long held desire to kill Jesus. Notice however, that even as they formulate this plan, it does not come to pass as they desire.
They do not want to kill Jesus during the festival. Jerusalem would have been packed at this time, and many of the people in the city were Galileans and followers of Jesus. This is why the authorities to arrest him quickly and try him secretly: to prevent uproar among the people. Also for this reason they did not want to arrest him during the weeklong festival that followed the Passover.
However, in spite of their plans, they ended up doing what they did not want to do. This is because their plan did not coincide with God’s plan; which was to have his Son, who had been prefigured for centuries in the paschal lamb of the feast, sacrificed during the time of the Passover. When man’s plans differ from God’s, God’s always win out.
Even when it appears that the forces of evil are victorious, God’s sovereign power is never in doubt. For a thousand years leading up to the Crucifixion Satan had been attempting to cut off the Messianic line. But the power of God had prevented this. David had been preserved from Saul, Judah had survived her neighbors, the Jews had escaped the plans of Haman in Persia, and Jesus had been delivered from Herod as an infant. But now, when the Jews say they do not want to kill him, God is intervening to bring his will to pass. This passage is one of the great ironies of the Bible, and demonstrates that even the death of the Son was in the sovereign hands of the Father.
May we never forget that the seconds of our life are ordered by him, and that in spite of our perception of our circumstances, he is bringing all to pass perfectly.