Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.” Mark 14:1-2

Cowards. The leaders who wanted to kill Jesus were cowards, pure and simple. If they thought Jesus was so terrible, why wouldn’t they seize Him at the most opportune time and reveal all the evidence they had against Him? They didn’t because they didn’t have any, and that terrified them. They knew they could sidle up to the Roman leaders and let them deal with Jesus so there would be no blood on their hands, but we all know the rest of this story. Their hatred for the hold Jesus had on the people was palpable. They wanted to take back that power and do so in a way with the least amount of pain to them.

No, they didn’t really believe He was guilty. They themselves were guilty of hatred and conspiracy.

But, fortunately, we know the rest of this story both figuratively and historically. Their hatred for Jesus blinded them to the truth of who He was. I suspect the hatred and bitterness bound them all inside so they couldn’t think about anything except for their hatred and their loss of power.

Perhaps you know someone full of hatred and bitterness. Perhaps that person is you.

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” – Saint Augustine

God does want to free you from that bitterness and resentment. Often the bitterness anger towards a person is justified because of how they have hurt you.

Release it.
Let it go.
Don’t let it eat you up inside.
If you need to confront someone and it’s safe to do so, by all means, pray to God for the strength to do that.

Let God help you in all aspects of that bitterness. You need to be free. You were never meant to carry that bitterness. The longer you carry it, the harder it is to let go.