The Jewish leaders decided to kill Jesus.

John 11:49-57

49 One of the Jewish Council members was Caiaphas. He was the Jewish high priest that year. Hinting that they should get rid of Jesus, he said to them, “You talk as though you do not know anything [HYP]! 50 You do not realize that it would be much better for us if one man died for the sake of the people rather than that the Romans kill all the people of our Jewish nation.” 51 He said that, not because he thought of it himself. Instead, since he was the high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the whole Jewish nation. 52 But he was also prophesying that Jesus would die, not just for the Jews, but for all the people living in other lands who would belong to God, in order that he would unite all of them into one group. 53 So from that day the Jewish leaders started to make plans how they could kill Jesus.

54 Because of that, Jesus no longer traveled around publicly among the Jewish people. Instead, he left Jerusalem, along with us disciples, and went to a village called Ephraim, in an area near the desolate region. We stayed there for a while.

55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration, many Jews went up to Jerusalem from other places in the country. They went there to perform the rituals to make themselves acceptable to God before the Passover celebration started. 56-57 56-57The Jewish chief priests and Pharisees issued an order that if anyone found out where Jesus was, that person should report it to them, in order that they could seize him. So the people thought that Jesus would probably not dare to come to the celebration. But they kept looking for him, and as they were standing in the Temple courtyard they were saying to each other, “What do you think? He will not come to the celebration, will he?”