Luke tells us that Jesus had come to Jerusalem during the Passover season. The Passover occurs in the spring and incorporates two different feast days—the Passover (one day) and the Days of Unleavened Bread (seven days). During the first century AD, the two were often taken together and referred to as a single Feast. In Luke 22:1 the Feast of Unleavened Bread (seven days) is referred to as the Passover, but the day the Passover lamb was killed occurred one day before the Feast of Unleavened bread (cf. Luke 22:7). The Passover Day was celebrated on the 14th day of the first month, while the Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated on the 15th to the 21st day of the first month (Leviticus 23:4-8). The first and last of these days were Sabbaths, annual holy days, but not the seventh day Sabbath.
The Passover season commemorated the Lord leading Israel out of Egypt. A lamb was slain on the afternoon of the 14th day of the first month. It was eaten for the evening meal on the 15th day of the first month (days began and ended at sundown for the Jews). It was just after sundown and during the night of the 15th that all the firstborn of Egypt were slain by the Lord, but all the firstborn of Israel were passed over and saved. In the morning Israel left Egypt. This season not only commemorates the Lord saving Israel and leading them out of Egypt, but it also looks forward to Jesus saving mankind and leading us out of sin.
It was at this very season that the Jewish authorities were seeking a way to take Jesus and have him executed, but they feared to unduly arouse the temper of the people (Luke 22:2). One may ask, however, why this would be a concern. Why couldn’t the authorities of that day be assured that they could control the people of Jerusalem?
Josephus tells us that, during the reign of Nero, Cestius, the Roman governor of Syria, sought to inform the Emperor of the impressive dedication the Jewish people expressed towards their faith. He requested the priests at Jerusalem to take a census of the people during the Passover, if that were possible. Since the average number of people partaking of a single lamb was 10, the priests counted the lambs that were slain for the Passover. There were 256,500. This means that, at the very least, there had to have been 2,565,000 worshipers at Jerusalem in the year of the census. Moreover, there were a number of additional worshipers at Jerusalem who for one reason or another were unclean and would not be able to partake of the Passover that season, so this figure was a bottom-line figure.
Into such a crowed city, Jesus spent his last week of ministry. It was due to a similar number of people who supported Jesus that troubled the Jewish authorities. This is what kept them from simply arresting and executing Jesus on a moment’s notice. They were afraid of arousing this huge crowd to a degree that they would be out of the Jewish authorities’ control. Such a thing would arouse the wrath of the Roman governor (cf. John 11:48; Matthew 26:5; Mark 14:2), who would take matters into his own hands, as he did on at least one other occasion (Luke 13:1), but, if the occasion warranted it, the Romans might even destroy the city and the Temple (cf. John 11:48).
Thus, the Jewish authorities were immersed in a dilemma concerning what they could and could not do to Jesus (cf. Luke 19:47-48; 20:19-20; 22:2). They wanted to arrest him and execute him, but they couldn’t risk arousing the wrath of Jesus’ supporters (cf. Matthew 26:3-5; Mark 14:1-2).
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