When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

--Parallel verses:
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭16‬-‭17‬
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

The concept of a death spiral is one that is used a lot in our society to describe poor behavior leading to out of control and, often, deadly living. This term dates back to 1912 and described the process of an airplane spinning out of control as it falls downward to earth and the pilot and passengers to their inevitable death. It was first used in the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette in the same year to describe fatal situations.

Today we also use this term for people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol or have extreme or wreckless behaviors that are damaging to the body or their lives.

As we look at how Jesus’ behavior differed from the behavior of the Jewish rulers, the contrast is stark. The Jewish leaders are desperate in their attempts to retain their power and position. This overriding objective trumps anything else. They justify plotting to kill Jesus not because he committed a heinous crime, but merely because he dared to challenge their teaching and thinking. The ends justified the means, in their world.

Their anger and hate of Jesus had begun to spiral out of control. Pride has clouded their judgment, and instead of honoring and paying respect to the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, they plot to kill him. This obsession with killing him would continue to spiral out of control until they crucified him. Pride, and its facilitator selfishness, result in uncontrollable sinful behavior that leads to eternal death. Just like an out of control airplane, the darkness that sin produces causes our souls to fall into a lifestyle of sin, and all sorts of evil plotting due to anger, jealousy, and hate.

Jesus, in contrast, does not scheme. Instead, he tells his disciples the truth and prophesies about his final act of extreme love and devotion to his people — sacrificing his perfect self on a cross to pay the price for all of our sins. He did not scheme, instead he spoke the truth.

While sinners scheme, God’s servants speak truth and focus on their mission.

Lord, thank you for this passage that shows the drastic comparison of actions between the Jewish leaders and Jesus. While the Jewish leaders schemed for their profit, Jesus planned to die for their sins. Lord, help me to reverse the “death spiral” impact of sin, and instead begin an upward spiral of momentum in serving you!