Matthew 26:3-5 “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. ‘But not during the Feast,’ they said, ‘or there may be a riot among the people.’”

These men who arranged for Jesus’ execution try to put a noble veneer on their plot. Historians estimate the population of Jerusalem at about 80,000 at the time of Jesus. But during the pilgrim feasts, the size of the city could quadruple. It’s not hard to imagine that 200,000 extra people with their sheep and goats at Passover created some issues of crowd control under ordinary circumstances. Even if a minority of the people believed Jesus was a prophet, these leaders saw potential for a lot of violence if they took Jesus’ life while all those people were in town. As responsible leaders with good civic values, they wanted to make sure that no one got hurt when they murdered the Messiah.

I trust the irony is not lost on you. “Let’s make our murder as safe and peaceful as possible. We wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.” At least you have to admit that these traitors to the nation they served and faith they professed were not unique in their muddled way of thinking. Take the adulterous couple who said they kept their affair a secret so that no one would get hurt. But if that is what they really wanted, shouldn’t they have practiced a little self-control, a little personal decency, and put a stop to their behavior before they tore two families apart, robbed their children of secure homes, and brought everyone they love to the brink of poverty?

Take the Big 10 university that told incoming students it was okay if they shoplifted from stores like Walmart or Target, “because big companies like that can afford it.” Take the pharmaceutical CEO who brought huge dividends to his shareholders, but he raised the price of a life-saving medication 5000 percent to do so. He jeopardized the lives and livelihoods of thousands who depend on the medication. But he didn’t break any laws.

We are not immune to these kinds of rationalizations of our own behavior. Maybe you have thought something like this: “I’m not so much running this stop sign as I am keeping the traffic flowing, or making sure I’m not late and inconveniencing the people waiting for me.” Not that creating a traffic accident wouldn’t interrupt the flow of traffic or inconvenience anyone.

Jesus’ enemies wanted to avoid a riot when they murdered the Savior, “So let’s not do it during the festival.” God spare us from the kind of logic that blinds us to our own sin.

On the other hand, some might have thought it was ironic that God’s own Son would die on the day that celebrated God’s great deliverance from death, the Passover. They might have thought that Jesus would say, “Not during the Festival.”

But Jesus chose this very day to redeem the world. The timing of his death wasn’t irony. It was divine poetry, because he is our true Passover Lamb, whose sacrifice takes away the sins of the world.