This is part of a year-long series. Learn more about this series here.

Mark 14:1 (CSB) The Plot To Kill Jesus

It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and kill him.

Thus we come to the Passion¹ of Christ in Mark’s Gospel, and it could not begin on a more treacherous note. The chief priests and scribes seek a way to arrest and kill Him. Such a plan is contrary to the Mosaic Law, the very Law that, in John’s Gospel, they tell Pilate they cannot break when he tells them to crucify Jesus themselves (cf. John 18:28-32).

Keeping the Mosaic Law through faith should have been precious to the chief priests and scribes, but instead they blatantly broke one of its commands that is repeatedly talked about. Exodus 20:13 says “do not murder”, either premeditated or otherwise. A short while later, God expands upon murder and says:

“Whoever strikes a person so that he dies must be put to death. But if he did not intend any harm, and yet God allowed it to happen, I [God] will appoint a place for you where he may flee. If a person schemes and willfully acts against his neighbor to murder him, you must take him from my alter to be put to death.” – Exodus 21:12-14

Murder was to always be avoided, but God extended mercy in accidental situations. Premeditated murder, on the other hand, was not forgiven, and the murderer was to be put to death.

The chief priests and scribes who plotted against Jesus were in the latter category. They should have always sought to follow the Law, but instead they acted on treachery to the utmost degree. Mark intends us to feel the weight of their actions as we read the Passion narrative.

Footnotes

1. The “Passion” of Jesus refers to His final week in Jerusalem, from His triumphal entry to His crucifixion ↩︎