For a Jewish person, Passover is the most essential family gathering of the year, similar to Thanksgiving for Americans or Christmas for a British person. God commanded the Israelites to appear before Him at the temple in Jerusalem three times a year (Exodus 23:13-15), and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with its first day called Passover, was one of those three occasions. During Jesus' time, it was hard to accommodate all the pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for the annual Feast. The tension among the religious leaders who opposed Jesus reached a breaking point when He appeared at the Feast.
1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present (Luke 22:1-6).
The historian Josephus tells us that Jerusalem's population exceeded 2,700,000 people during Passover. With such a large crowd, it’s understandable why the disciples and Jesus would sleep outside on the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane. The garden was less than half a mile from the temple, making it an easy, short walk for everyone to arrive early in the morning to hear Christ teach there (Luke 21:37-38).
We have the advantage of hindsight in knowing that the Lord had no intention of taking control of Israel's religious government, but the priests and the seventy elders of the Sanhedrin did not realize this. They may have feared a religious uprising against them and being held accountable for their money-making schemes. They could also have feared a riot and losing their positions if the Roman government didn’t believe they could maintain order. As more people arrived each day, their fears of a rebellion increased (v. 2). They felt they needed to act before the Passover, when religious sensitivities would be at their peak.
But how were they supposed to arrest Jesus? It had to be done secretly. The elite religious leaders had already sent the temple guards once before to arrest Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles. However, when the guards returned, they did not arrest the Lord. Why not? Because His hour had not yet come. The guards were under direct orders from the high priest, yet they refused to arrest Christ after hearing Him teach. The reason they gave must have made the elite leaders even more anxious: Christ's words touched their hearts.
45Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn't you bring him in?" 46"No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared. 47"You mean he has deceived you also?" the Pharisees retorted (John 7:45-47).
Such influence and spiritual authority over people were intimidating for the chief priests and teachers of the law. Thousands attended Christ's teaching from early morning until dark during the days leading up to Passover. No wonder they looked for a way to eliminate Jesus (v. 2). (The Greek word anaireō is translated into English as “get rid of;” it means to kill or put to death.) While they were trying to find a way to arrest the Messiah (away from the crowd), and to the great relief of the religious leaders, one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, approached them with a plan to betray Jesus. We’ll continue this discussion over the next few days. Keith Thomas
Taken from the series on the Gospel of Luke. Click on Study 58. The Betrayal of Jesus.