But they were saying, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
Their words show that they were afraid not of God, but of the people. They were not asking whether their deed was righteous before God, but were thinking only about how to avoid public unrest. This reveals the nature of false piety: it can be very cautious about outward consequences, yet completely blind to the weight of sin. Yet they thought they could decide the time, while in reality the death of Christ was going to take place at the hour appointed by God—at Passover itself—so that it might be shown that He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.