Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be deliverd up to be crucified.” Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the the people. Matthew 26:1-5
Now this is interesting, because this apparently was on Monday, that Jesus gave the Olivet discourse (Matthew 24:3-51). He had made His triumphant entry on Sunday, which is known as Palm Sunday, and then the next day He came back into the temple. And He had been there the day before and cleansed the wrong things set up there. He drove out the moneychangers. Now the next day He came back to the temple and the scribes and the priests all said, “By what authority?” and they challenged Him on the issue. And as they were leaving the temple they said, “Lord, what will be the sign of Your coming, and the destruction of the temple?” And Jesus gave this Olivet discourse (Matthew 24:1).
Passover—This was God’s chosen time for Christ to die. He was to become the ultimate Passover Lamb from God for the forgiveness of sins. Now as He finished the discourse, He said to His disciples, “You know in two days its going to be the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is to be betrayed, to be crucified.” Now if He was saying this on Monday, it meant that the feast of the Passover in two days would of course be on Wednesday. And Jesus was crucified on the feast day, the feast of Passover. So it would appear that Jesus was probably crucified on Wednesday, which would then give you the three days, and the three nights in the heart of the earth. People have an awful hard time figuring that from a Sunday aspect, from a Friday crucifixion to a Sunday morning resurrection. Nonetheless, the Scripture is clear, so after two days, the feast of the Passover and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Until now, Jesus had always avoided His enemies plots to kill Him (Luke 4:29-30) but now it was His time, the true Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world would now be led into the hands of His enemies to be tried and found guilty, and be condemned to die.
Caiaphas—Actually there were two high priests, Caiaphas and Annas. Caiaphas of the appointment of Roman government, and Annas the accepted one from the religious people of their day. And these two consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest their fellow Jews would cause an uproar. The sovereignty of God, The Bible makes it clear There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord. (Proverbs 21:30) And we read in the New Testament, Jesus said to His disciples, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I received from My Father.” (John 10:17-18) The Jewish leaders were eager to kill Jesus, were also doing their best to keep this from happening on the feast day, and yet, not realizing that in order to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament, it was important that Jesus be crucified as the Lamb of God on the feast day. So they were trying to avoid the feast day, but there was no way that they could, because God had sovereignly appointed the day in which He would remember that the Lamb was slain in order to save the first born. So Jesus, as the Lamb of God establishing now a new covenant of God with people. It was important that it be on the day that commemorated the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ our Passover lamb suffering for us.
It is so important for us to see that God is sovereignly in control over every circumstance in our world today. At the fullness of His perfect timing, He sent Jesus Christ into our world, born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) Jesus is fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). God knows also our future , rules over every circumstance and cares for us in ways that are far beyond our understanding. This is the start of the passion week of Christ, people from all over the world will be thinking of Christ’s death on the cross. When Jesus died, He shared in what all of us must experience. But far beyond that, He did what none of us can do. He paid the price for our sins even though He was without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) that we might be forgiven and have eternal life through faith in Him. So in other words, Jesus died so we might live. This was at the needed chosen time of God. And of course, at the needed prophetically chosen time, Jesus rose from the grave. Today, we can remember with other believing Christians our Savior’s selfless path to the cross, remembering our sin debt was paid by His shed blood, then in tremendous joy, give thanks to God our Father, for His resurrected risen Son! Amazing grace indeed.
May the Lord bless your walk with Him this week!
