After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1–44), the die was cast. The Rubicon crossed. No turning back. The Jewish religious leaders gathered, devising the plot to kill Jesus. Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did [raised Lazarus], believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who…