Biblion Bible Commentary
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Two Days Before the Passover
Matthew 26:1-5
1 When Jesus had finished all these words, he said to his disciples, · WEB
He names the day of his death; in another room they are agreeing to avoid exactly that day.
When Jesus had finished all these words, he said to his disciples, "You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified" Matthew 26:1–2.
The formula that has closed each of the five discourses closes the last one Matthew 7:28, and this time what follows it is the passion. The fourth announcement is the shortest and the most precise: not only that it will happen, but when.
Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas. They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit and kill him Matthew 26:3–4.
Matthew sets the two scenes side by side without comment. In one room a man says his death is two days away; in another, men are working out how to arrange it.
But they said, "Not during the feast, lest a riot occur among the people" Matthew 26:5.
That is the sentence to hold. Their considered decision, taken by the men who controlled the outcome, was that it must not happen at Passover — and it happened at Passover, on the day he named, with the lambs being killed in the temple as he died. The plan they made and the plan being carried out were not the same plan, and only one of them held.
The reason for their caution is also worth noting. It is not conscience. It is crowd control.
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