Lent@Landmark: Day 38

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

This is just such a slimy moment, isn’t it?  Jesus has just preached about the Kingdom coming on Earth as it is in Heaven.  He paints a picture of justice and compassion--of care for the outcast, the sick, the poor, the imprisoned.  He points towards hope in the face of oppression, but then, the oppressors take notice.  

The religious authorities who benefit from the situation they’re in decide that they need to get rid of him, but they also keep an eye on the public relations aspect of it!  They decide to wait until crowds disperse from events leading up to Passover.  After all, some of these people had hope now, perhaps for the first time in their lives!

Humanity’s capacity for selfishness is great. Our capacity for selflessness is greater through faith in Jesus Christ. —MH