Monday, March 24, 2014
Matthew 26:3-5 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people."
SENTENCED IN SECRET, SPOKEN OF IN PUBLIC
It wasn't an official meeting. After all, official meetings were held on the temple mount, open to the public in the hall of hewn stones. This meeting was called secretly and driven not by love but by hatred. For only certain prominent priests were invited along with the elders of the people to meet in the courtyard of the home of the High Priest, Caiaphas.
It was really a preliminary meeting. They discussed how they might detain Jesus at all costs, without regard for truth and lawfulness, and put Him out of the way. This was no public discussion of law, but private plans for murder. They finalized no plan, except that it should not happen during the feast, lest there be a disturbance among the people. They wanted the whole matter to be completed by stealth without the knowledge of the people.
They wanted to silence Jesus and His teaching. They did neither. It's true that they had him crucified, but that happened only because the Eternal Father had determined before time began that it should -- and on the third day He rose again. Jesus' disciples may have run on Maundy Thursday, but in the years that followed they went into the entire world with the message of salvation in Christ.
We have been chosen by the Eternal Father and His Son by means of the Spirit to play a role and continue to spread the Good News that our sins our forgiven. May God so embolden our faith that we never keep silent.
