Mark 2:23-3:6
“Notice what you notice.” And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart… (Mark 3:5). I remember commenting back on January 17 how Mark was the only writer who noted that Jesus was “moved with compassion…” over the plight of the leper (Mark 1:41). Now we see the opposite extreme of His emotion, anger at the Pharisees’ hardness of heart. Again, Mark is the only writer to note Jesus’ emotional reaction. I find I’ll be watching for that more often in Mark.
A second item, in the next verse and associated with this same event… The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against Him, how to destroy Him (verse 6). Actually, two items hit me here. The first is something known as the “Passover Plot” (John 11:45-53). It comes after Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead, when Caiaphas, the High Priest suggests that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish. Then John’s very next chapter is Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of His march to the Cross. But John records this item at the very end of Jesus’ earthly life. Mark records this “counsel with the Herodians” during Jesus’ first year of ministry. We really do not know the chronology of Jesus’ life, especially whether He was ministering for one, two, or three years. But if we go with the 2-3 years that is commonly accepted (i.e., three trips to Jerusalem), then this plotting has taken quite some time. I will have to wonder when John covers Jesus’ second trip to Jerusalem whether or not there is continuing talk of Jesus’ destruction during that second visit.
One other item that never jumped out at me in the previous paragraph was the Pharisees plotting with the Herodians. That’s not surprising, in that the Herodians’ hostility toward Jesus is mentioned only on one other occasion, in Jerusalem during Holy Week, when the Pharisees and Herodians were sent to Jesus so as to trap Him on something he might say (https://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/herodians.html) (Mark 12:13; Matthew 22:16). So I won’t have to keep watching for this event to repeat! Again, Mark’s precision is to be lauded here – he is the only writer to mention the Herodians’ activity against Jesus while in Galilee.
This stuff has been there all these years, folks. I just haven’t seen it!!
Slava Bohu!
Unfortunately, your use of the term “Passover Plot” is confusing. The Passover Plot is a book (and associated movie) by Hugh Schonfield that seeks to discredit Christianity by asserting that Jesus plotted with a few insiders to stage (fake) His own death and resurrection in a carefully scripted fulfillment of prophecy. It is not about the Jewish leadership plotting to kill Jesus. Anyone with even passing familiarity with that book won’t hear “Passover Plot” the way you intend it to be understood.