As we move through this Lenten season, knowing that it culminates in the death and resurrection of Jesus, it’s useful to remember that his execution didn’t occur as a spur of the moment decision. It was an objective of the Jewish leaders from the beginning:

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3.1 – 6, ESV)

Why would you want to be part of such a religion or follow leaders like that? A religion where no good deed goes unpunished.

But the point of this blog is that the Pharisees didn’t even like the Herodians, but Jesus was their common enemy, and their plotting to destroy him begins early.

So Passion Week, which is approaching as we move through Lent, culminates a long period of plotting. But everything in God’s time.

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16.21, ESV)