“It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him” – Mark 14:1

Why is this surprising to us? It should not be – we all attempt to sin in secret. The human condition is not unique to any one of us, rather, each of us are only one decision away from being like the chief priests and the scribes. Jesus died for our sin, so we are every bit as guilty as the they are.

This group of people, just two days ago, saw Jesus enter Jerusalem on the back of a donkey being received by the waving and laying down of palm branches and clothes while people cheered, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”. This seemingly absurd phenomenon was actually a fulfillment of a prophecy in the book of Zachariah and alludes to many other passages in the Old Testament:

Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.” (2 Kings 9:13)

My servant David [someone from David’s lineage] shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd (Ezekiel 37:24)

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)

The priests and scribes were the Old Testament scholars of their time and they saw with their own two eyes all the prophesies that were being fulfilled in Jesus’ life. They saw Him command mother nature, they heard him teach with profound authority, and they saw Him heal the sick. They had no excuse! Why did they conspire against him? Why were their hearts so hardened to the facts of Jesus reign and salvation?

They wanted to preserve the status quo [the ways things are; the current state of affairs]. By claiming to be King and by cleansing the temple the way he did on Monday, he was a threat to their way of life. The priests and scribes loved their position in society: they had influence and were regarded highly by the Jews especially and even the Romans allowed them to operate with autonomy. Jesus wouldn’t mess up, so they had to try to kill him.

How often do we close off our hearts to something that God is calling us to because we are in love with the status quo?

Let today be a reminder that we are all temped to be like the chief priests and scribes – to want to fit in and preserve the status quo at the cost of obeying our King. We, also, have no excuse. Today remember that Jesus is Lord over every society their corresponding social norms. We cannot love the status quo and simultaneously love Jesus.

“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world (1 John 2:16)

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