The Piety of the Plotters Text: Mark 14:1-2
Introduction: The Liturgical Clock is Ticking
We have come to the final week. The Son of God has entered Jerusalem, not as a political revolutionary, but as the King of a Kingdom that rearranges all other kingdoms. He has cleansed the Temple, a prophetic act of judgment against a corrupt and fruitless religious establishment. He has taught with an authority that silences the Sadducees and ties the Pharisees in knots. The lines have been drawn, the antithesis is sharp and clear, and the air is thick with a murderous tension. The liturgical clock of Israel's history, set by God centuries before in Egypt, is ticking down to its final, definitive hours. The Passover is two days away.
And it is here, against the backdrop of Israel's great festival of redemption, that we see the black heart of apostate religion laid bare. The Passover was the celebration of God's deliverance, a memorial of the blood of the lamb that shielded God's people from the angel of death. It was a feast of liberation. But for the men who held the levers of religious power in Jerusalem, it had become something else entirely. It was a potential public relations problem. It was a logistical headache. It was an obstacle to their primary objective, which was the elimination of the Son of God.
We must understand that the chief priests and scribes were not irreligious men. They were the most religious men in the nation. They were meticulous in their observance, zealous for the law, and guardians of the temple. And they were plotting a murder. This is a stark warning to us. It is possible to be neck-deep in the administration of religion, to know the calendar of the feasts, to have all the right theological vocabulary, and to be simultaneously and actively at war with the God you claim to serve. The greatest enemy of the gospel is not, and never has been, honest, beer-drinking paganism. The greatest enemy of the gospel is corrupt religion. It is a starched collar with a rotten heart.
These two verses show us the careful, calculated, and ultimately cowardly hypocrisy of men who loved their positions more than they loved God. They feared the people more than they feared the Almighty, and their piety was a thin veneer for a plot born in the pit of hell.
The Text
Now the Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how, after seizing Him in secret, they might kill Him; for they were saying, “Not during the festival, lest there be a riot of the people.”
(Mark 14:1-2 LSB)
The Unholy Alliance (v. 1)
We begin with the setting and the conspiracy.
"Now the Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how, after seizing Him in secret, they might kill Him;" (Mark 14:1)
Mark sets the stage with liturgical precision. "The Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away." These two feasts were back-to-back and often referred to as one. The Passover commemorated the exodus from Egypt, the great founding act of redemption for the nation of Israel. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which followed immediately, was a celebration of holiness and separation from the corruption of Egypt, symbolized by leaven. It is a staggering irony. As all of Jerusalem prepared to celebrate deliverance from bondage and separation from corruption, the religious leaders were neck-deep in both. They were enslaved to their hatred and thoroughly leavened with hypocrisy.
And what were they doing? They "were seeking how." This was not a crime of passion. This was premeditated, cold-blooded murder. The verb "seeking" denotes a continual, ongoing effort. They were brainstorming. They were holding committee meetings. They were strategizing the most effective way to commit deicide. Notice who is involved: "the chief priests and the scribes." This is the unholy alliance of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The chief priests were largely Sadducees, the liberal, aristocratic, politically connected establishment. They didn't believe in the resurrection or angels. The scribes were the theological experts, mostly Pharisees, the conservative, grassroots legalists. These two groups were normally at each other's throats. But they found common ground in their hatred for Jesus. Nothing unites compromised men like a shared enemy, especially when that enemy is the embodiment of absolute truth and righteousness. Jesus was a threat to the Sadducees' power and wealth, and He was a threat to the Pharisees' self-righteousness. So the liberals and the conservatives, the establishment and the populists, all linked arms to kill God.
Their goal was twofold: "seizing Him in secret" and then to "kill Him." They wanted to arrest Him by stealth, "in secret." Why? Because they were cowards. They knew Jesus had immense popularity with the common people who had heard His teaching and seen His miracles. They were not acting as shepherds protecting the flock; they were acting as wolves, seeking to isolate a single sheep away from the herd. They wanted to avoid a public confrontation because they knew they would lose. Their authority was a sham, and they knew it. True authority is not afraid of the light. But these men were creatures of the shadows. Their entire enterprise was built on deceit, and so their final act had to be one of deceit as well.
The Coward's Calculation (v. 2)
Verse 2 reveals the motivation behind their secrecy. It was not a fear of God, but a fear of man.
"for they were saying, 'Not during the festival, lest there be a riot of the people.'" (Mark 14:2 LSB)
Here is the essence of their corruption. Their primary concern was not "Is this righteous?" or "What does God command?" Their primary concern was "What will the people do?" Their calculus was entirely political, entirely horizontal. They were guided by opinion polls, not by the law of God. "Lest there be a riot of the people." Jerusalem was swollen with pilgrims for the Passover, many of them Galileans who held Jesus in high regard. The leaders were afraid of losing control. They feared a popular uprising that would threaten their cozy arrangement with Rome and, consequently, their own power and prestige.
This is what happens when the fear of man replaces the fear of God. It turns shepherds into politicians. It makes men who are supposed to be ministers of the Word into managers of public perception. Their decision-making process was utterly godless. There is no mention of prayer, no consultation of the Scriptures they claimed to be experts in, only a pragmatic assessment of risk. They were willing to murder the Messiah, but they wanted to do it in a way that wouldn't cause a public disturbance. It is the very definition of hypocrisy: an obsession with outward appearance while the heart is full of dead men's bones.
And yet, in their plotting, they were unwittingly serving the sovereign plan of God. They said, "Not during the festival." But God had said, "Precisely during the festival." Jesus was the true Passover Lamb. It was absolutely necessary, according to the divine script, that He be sacrificed at the very time the Passover lambs were being slain throughout Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 5:7). These men thought they were in control, carefully managing their wicked agenda. But they were mere puppets. Their shrewd political calculation was about to be overruled by the sovereign decree of the Almighty. God would use their fear, their secrecy, and their hatred to bring about the central event in human history, at the exact time and in the exact manner He had ordained from before the foundation of the world. They were trying to avoid a riot, but God was orchestrating a redemption.
Conclusion: Fear God, Not Man
The lesson for us is sharp and pointed. The sin of the chief priests and scribes is not some ancient, fossilized evil. It is a perennial temptation for all who are in positions of leadership, especially in the church.
The temptation is to make our decisions based on what will keep the peace, what will keep the people happy, what will avoid a "riot." It is the temptation to manage the church instead of leading it, to be sensitive to feelings instead of faithful to the truth. It is the temptation to value stability over righteousness, and unity over truth. When a pastor refuses to preach on a hard doctrine because "people might leave," he is drinking from the same cup as these scribes. When an elder board refuses to discipline a prominent member because "it might cause a division," they are walking in the footsteps of the Sanhedrin.
Their fear of man led them to plot the murder of God. Our fear of man will lead us, in our own smaller ways, to betray Him as well. We will compromise His truth, neglect His commands, and silence His gospel, all for the sake of a quiet life. We will choose the path of stealth and secrecy, avoiding the controversial truths in public, hoping no one gets upset.
The antidote is what these men so tragically lacked: the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of man is a snare. These men, who should have been leading the people in the fear of the Lord, were instead ensnared by their fear of the people. And so they stumbled into the greatest crime in history.
But praise God, their crime became our salvation. Their wicked plot was harnessed by a sovereign God to accomplish His holy purpose. They delivered up the Lamb, but God had ordained it for the forgiveness of sins. Let us, therefore, reject their cowardly calculus. Let us resolve to fear God alone. Let us speak His truth plainly, openly, and without fear of the consequences, knowing that the God who turned a murderous plot into a glorious redemption is more than able to care for those who refuse to bow the knee to the idol of public opinion.