1When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. 2And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
Still plotting? I thought they had it all worked out! Didn’t the entire council just agree that what Jesus said was blasphemy and deserving of death?
Footnotes in my Bible said that the Romans took away from the Jews the ability to perform capital punishment. So I guess additional plotting was needed to actually perform a death sentence. Their solution was to take Jesus to Pontius Pilate to carry out the deed. Their problem, that Jesus’ teaching was bothering them, which should have been strictly a Jewish problem was going to be taken to the state, so they would have to find some way to make it a government problem.
I just did a quick scan to see if there was any mention of the Roman government up to this point. The only ones I could find did not seem to point out any conflicts that would exist between Jesus and the Roman government. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus was asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus’ answer of give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s should have met the Roman government’s satisfaction. In Matthew 8:5-13, a Roman Centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus saw great faith in this Centurion. Again, this is an interaction between Jesus and a Roman soldier, showing no problems between Jesus and the Roman government. Yes, it would take some plotting to make this a government problem.
I was just wondering why this needed to become a government problem. Was it simply because that was the only way the Jewish leaders could have put Jesus to death? Or was there some other reason God wanted more involved than just the Jews? I almost wonder if God got the Roman government involved on purpose. Jesus died for everyone, not just the Jews. So this way everyone would have a part in His death.