Mark 14:1-2

The Anointing of Jesus. Mark 14, 1-9.

The council of the chief priests and scribes: V. 1. After two days was the Feast of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread; and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death. V. 2. But they said, Not on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar of the people. The Jewish authorities had not given up one bit of their enmity and rage against the Prophet of Galilee. There had been daily sessions in the Hall of Polished Stones and undoubtedly many private consultations of the manner in which the unpleasant interloper might be removed.

It was now Wednesday. Mark gives the full name of the festival which was approaching: the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Passover was celebrated on the 14th of Abib, or Nisan, the spring month, and it merged into the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The two festivals were really celebrated as one, and their names were used promiscuously.

The members of the Sanhedrin felt that matters had now reached such a stage that quick action was demanded, John 11, 48. They were anxious to take Him, and yet they felt that it must be done with craft. Die He must, of that they were certain, but wisdom told them not to have the arrest take place on the festival day. Should they attempt that, there was almost sure to be a popular disturbance and demonstration in His favor. That must be avoided at all costs; before or after the festival was the proper time.

The poor blind Pharisees did not know that the entire matter was in God's hands, and that the day and the hour of Christ's death had been decided in God's council.