"45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 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.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
54 Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?”57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him."
John 11:45-57
Caiaphas' words seem to have settled the matter, for from that point the plan to put Jesus to death began to be crystallised. The die was cast, and they were now past the point of no return. And Jesus, we are told in 54, walked no more openly among them - not for fear of them, but because His hour was not quite come, and He did not choose as yet to die. Doubtless, this time of withdrawal was one full of wonderful fellowship and teaching for the disciples, as they waited for the coming of the Passover season. We may gather from 55 that the raising of Lazarus must have taken place quite near to the Passover, and it would seem, from the eager debate among the people in 56, that there could well have been in their minds some thought that the miracle had something to say in relation to the Passover. After all, the Passover did speak of new life - new life for the people of Israel on coming out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, and a covenant relationship with their God. It could well be that the thought of the miracle of Lazarus, the giving of life to the dead, may have borne a message to those who were going up to the feast. At all events, the fact that John mentions the Passover here and that the people were eagerly seeking Jesus is an indication that there was a tremendous sense of the dramatic in the air, and of momentous things happening and about to happen. The scene was being set for the supreme drama of all history.