In the Beginning: The Book of John (John 11:54-57[HCSB])

54 Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim. And He stayed there with the disciples.

55 The Jewish Passover was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the country to purify themselves before the Passover.

56 They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple complex: “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival, will He? ”

57 The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it so they could arrest Him.

Jesus prepares …

Knowing that the Jewish leaders were already plotting to have one man die that the nation should not perish, Jesus retreated and prepared Himself for the end of His physical life, and the beginning of God’s unending grace. What had been a war of words between Our Lord and the authorities was quickly was coming to a head in the wake of Lazarus’ resurrection.

Jesus ministry would require the agony of the cross, so His complete preparation was absolutely critical. Accomplishing this as God was one thing; accomplishing it as a man was something else altogether. What Jesus was preparing to do would, as we now know, change everything.

There are obvious similarities that this episode shares with the wilderness experience He encountered immediately after His baptism. Again, we have Jesus entering into a time of retreat to an outlying area to gather strength for what lay ahead. He would again be tested by the Devil; what had begun across the Jordan River 3 years earlier would conclude on the cross.

(It would be less than two weeks before Jesus rode openly into Jerusalem to fanfare, praises, and the waving of palm branches by His followers. So, there was very little time to prepare for a final victory over death and sin!)

What we also learn from this passage is that everyone sought Jesus … some to kill Him, some to follow Him, and others to simply observe Him. Men still seek him, the wise and the otherwise.

It is ironic that Caiaphas and his cronies, the chief priests and Pharisees these mortal authority figures actually believed that they could put to death the One who could raise the dead. Consider the arrogance and the foolishness. *