1 When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, 2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.” 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas; 4 and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. 5 But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.”
The die has now been cast, the inevitable begun. That which has been pre-determined commences to unfold. Peter later understood what he couldn’t see at that moment, “… this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). The religious leaders had been plotting for some time (see Matt 12:14), Jesus had been predicting it for just as long (see Matt 12:40, 16:21, 7:9, 12, 22, 20:18). The disciples still could not believe it.
The chief priests and elders were simply the pawns in the diabolical, master plan which began in the Garden of Eden. Satan was hell-bent on frustrating God’s plan for His image and glory on the earth. Death and destruction has reigned ever since, as the devil led Adam and Eve into sin, and subsequently the entire human race. Christ had come as Messiah to establish the kingdom of God on earth; the fulfillment of God’s redemption was central to that kingdom plan. The Messiah would die as a propitiation, that is, satisfaction and completion of God’s anger over the sin problem. At once sin would finally be dealt with and God’s eternal judgment would be absolutely and completely satisfied. The breach in His glory would not just be mended, but shown to be woven gloriously into a much bigger picture than we could ever have imagined. God, the divine master chess player, is in complete control.
So the leaders go through the motions of their little vignette, totally oblivious to the eternal ramifications of their bit part. What a tragic-glorious thing to happen. In their sinful rejection of Christ, they were the instruments to bring about the greatest sacrifice of all. Not just a covering of sins, like the OT sacrifice which could never take away sin, but a complete and exhaustive sacrifice, fully satisfying to God, that takes away sin forever. “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all… For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10, 14).
Lord, Your plan is amazing, using even the worst that man (Satan) can do as a master stroke in the magnificent revelation of Your Glory!
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