The Jewish Leaders Plan to Kill Jesus^(A)

26 After Jesus finished saying all these things, he said to his followers, ² “You know that the day after tomorrow is Passover. On that day the Son of Man will be handed over to his enemies to be killed on a cross.”

³ Then the leading priests and the older Jewish leaders had a meeting at the palace where the high priest lived. The high priest’s name was Caiaphas. ⁴ In the meeting they tried to find a way to arrest and kill Jesus without anyone knowing what they were doing. They planned to arrest Jesus and kill him. ⁵ They said, “We cannot arrest Jesus during Passover. We don’t want the people to become angry and cause a riot.”

Judas Agrees to Help Jesus’ Enemies^(A)

¹⁴ Then one of the twelve followers went to talk to the leading priests. This was the follower named Judas Iscariot. ¹⁵ He said, “I will hand Jesus over to you. What will you pay me for doing this?” The priests gave him 30 silver coins. ¹⁶ After that Judas waited for the best time to hand Jesus over to them.

The Jewish Leaders Plan to Kill Jesus^(A)

14 It was now only two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The leading priests and teachers of the law were trying to find a way to arrest Jesus without the people seeing it. Then they could kill him. ² They said, “But we cannot arrest Jesus during the festival. We don’t want the people to be angry and cause a riot.”

Judas Agrees to Help Jesus’ Enemies^(A)

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, went to talk to the leading priests about handing Jesus over to them. ¹¹ They were very happy about this, and they promised to pay him. So he waited for the best time to hand Jesus over to them.

The Jewish Leaders Plan to Kill Jesus^(A)

⁴⁵ There were many Jews who came to visit Mary. When they saw what Jesus did, many of them believed in him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus did. ⁴⁷ Then the leading priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the high council. They said, “What should we do? This man is doing many miraculous signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him continue doing these things, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹ One of the men there was Caiaphas. He was the high priest that year. He said, “You people know nothing! ⁵⁰ It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed. But you don’t realize this.”

⁵¹ Caiaphas did not think of this himself. As that year’s high priest, he was really prophesying that Jesus would die for the Jewish people. ⁵² Yes, he would die for the Jewish people. But he would also die for God’s other children scattered all over the world. He would die to bring them all together and make them one people.

⁵³ That day the Jewish leaders began planning to kill Jesus.