The Liberator: The Conspiracy

Was Jesus from Nazareth the victim of a conspiracy,

or did he instigate his own arrest?

Almost from the beginning of his ministry, Jesus drew the attention of the religious authorities. In his Sermon on the Mount he openly challenged their authority. "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."

The religious community was quick to realize that if Jesus continued his ministry, almost everything they held sacred would be swept away. If the people accepted him as the Messiah and followed his teaching, the Jewish religion as they practiced it would be destroyed.

So a clash between them was inevitable. Everywhere Jesus went, they sent their spies. Listening to his every word, they waited for some opportunity to discredit him or his teachings. But the longer they used this methodology, the greater their frustration became. They could not destroy his popularity; they could not catch him in an anarchic statement to be used as legal evidence before the Roman government. Every form of entrapment their fertile minds could create ended in failure. So the religious leaders convened a council in an attempt to find a solution for this teacher.

"What are we accomplishing? The man is performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away our authority and destroy our nation."

Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, spoke up. "Don't you know anything? Don't you recognize it is better for us that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish? As high priest, I prophesy that Jesus will die for the nation." (John 11:47-50).

So they began to plan in detail how they might put Jesus to death.

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