Resources > Adventure Link CSI Jerusalem...The Conspiracy is Born Posted by Rev. Jeff Dixon, Senior Equipping Minister, Covenant Community Church on Mar 1, 2005, 17:52

The Adventure Link

CSI : Jerusalem

The Conspiracy is Born

Our investigation now brings us to examining evidence about the conspiracy against Jesus.

The drama of the crucifixion begins in Matthew 26, where the plot to murder Jesus is hatched. Actually, in a very important sense, the entire life of Christ had been a prologue to this moment. He condescended to become a man with the express purpose of dying (John 12:27; Philippians 2:4–7; Hebrews 2:14). As He stood before Pilate to be condemned to death, Christ Himself said, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world” (John 18:37). He repeatedly spoke of the hour of His death as “my hour” (John 2:4; 7:6, 30; 8:20; 12:23; 13:1; 17:1). Everything in His life was preparation for the hour of His death.

Jesus had told His disciples numerous times that He would die at the hands of those who hated Him. In fact, long before His final journey to Jerusalem, “while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him’ ” (Matthew 17:22–23).

Now the hour had come, and an unstoppable chain of events had begun that would end in His murder. His final week of earthly ministry was drawing to a close. Christ had just finished His Olivet Discourse, the great prophetic sermon that spans Matthew 24–25. But His thoughts were not far from the subject of His death. Matthew writes, “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 delivered up to be crucified’ ” (26:1–2). He knew His hour had come. The sovereign plan of God for the redemption of sinners was about to come to fruition. And although evil men were at that very moment plotting His death in secret, it was no secret from the sovereign, omniscient mind of Christ.

Only a few days before, He rode into the city in triumph, while shouts of “Hosanna” rang from crowds lining the streets. To the disciples—to any observant human eye—it looked as if He would be swept onto the Messianic throne with an unstoppable wave of grass-roots support.

But Jesus knew the real truth.

Public opinion is fickle. Righteousness will never triumph through public opinion anyway. The fawning masses were attracted to Jesus’ miracles, but they were not prepared to acknowledge their sin and yield to Him as Lord. It is entirely probable that many of the same people who were shouting hosannas to Him at the beginning of the week were the same ones yelling “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” before the week was over.

Nonetheless, the Jewish leaders, threatened by Jesus’ apparent popularity among the people of Jerusalem, met together clandestinely to discuss what to do about Him. Matthew describes the scene: “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 people’ ” (Matthew 26:3–5).

The evil plot would ultimately succeed, but only in accord with the divine plan, and only according to the divine timetable.

In fact, had the murder of Jesus not been part of the eternal plan of God, it would never have happened. Jesus said of His Life, “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 have received from My Father” (John 10:18).

Pilate would attempt to force Jesus to answer the accusations against Him by citing his own authority as governor—“Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” (John 19:10). But Jesus replied, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (v. 11). Clearly, God was utterly sovereign in every aspect of what was occurring.

You can do the research and discover on several occasions prior to this, various enemies of Christ had sought to kill Him but were divinely thwarted because it was not yet His time.

The earliest attempt to kill Him was immediately after His birth. Herod slaughtered all the male infants in and around Bethlehem, because he heard the Messiah had been born there. But an angel from the Lord warned Joseph, and the little family fled to Egypt until the threat had passed.

In one of his first acts of public ministry, Christ read from the scroll of Isaiah in His hometown synagogue in Nazareth. The people became so enraged at His teaching when He claimed to be the One who the prophet wrote about that they carried Him out of the city to the brow of the hill on which the city stood. Their plan was to throw Him off the cliff to His death, but He supernaturally eluded them (Luke 4:16–30). It was not yet His time.

During Christ’s earlier ministry in Jerusalem, He healed a man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. When the religious leaders challenged Him, Christ replied that His Father was working, so it was fitting for Him to work as well (John 5:17). John writes, “The Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God” (v. 18). Many of those same Jewish leaders were no doubt the same ones who later would join the plot with Caiaphas.

During that earlier time of ministry in Jerusalem, it became so well known that the Jewish leaders were seeking to kill Jesus that He was referred to as “He whom they seek to kill” (John 7:25). The widespread knowledge that His life was in danger did not deter Jesus in the least. He continued speaking boldly, and the Jewish leaders, intimidated by His fearlessness, said nothing to Him. That caused many people to wonder if the Sanhedrin knew He was the Messiah (v. 26). Even the temple guard, assigned to arrest Him, cowered at His boldness. When the chief priests and Pharisees demanded to know why He had not been arrested, the temple officers replied, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (John 7:46).

It was not yet His time, and not until His time had come could their murderous plans possibly succeed.

When it was His time, He knew it. On the night of His arrest, He told the disciples, “The Son of Man goes as it has been determined” (Luke 22:22).