expedient balancing act

Monday April 14^th, Matthew 26: At that very moment, the party of high priests and religious leaders was meeting in the chambers of the Chief Priest named Caiaphas, conspiring to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. "We don't want a riot on our hands,” The Chief Priest and Caiaphas were not evil people.  They were good people, trying to live good lives and walk that tightrope between serving their people and keeping the Romans, who ruled the area, happy.  They also happened to be  politically motivated and resourceful, much like the politicians we love and hate in Washington today.  They were in power, it is true, but a tenuous power it was.  In this occupied land they were able to rule over their people only because Rome allowed them to do so as long as they kept order.  It worked for Rome, it worked for the power structure of the Hebrew people.  Maintain order your way or Rome would maintain order its way, and so a politically expedient balancing act was the norm.  Jesus was a threat to that balance.  He had already gathered a crowd of his own who dared to greet him as the liberator king during this liberation celebration.  To the ones at the top, the goal was maintaining status quo.  To the ones at the bottom, the goal was hope.  Hope is always a threat to the status quo when maintaining power is seen as the bottom line.