'But not during the Feast'

“Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill Him. ‘But not during the Feast,’ they said, ‘or the people may riot.’” Mark 14:1-2
We’re familiar with the events that have come to be celebrated as Easter: Jesus being betrayed by Judas, arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, tried before Annas, Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate, beaten, flogged, and ultimately crucified – then buried, and rising again after three days. All of this happened on the Passover: this was the reason that the soldiers were instructed to break the legs of those hanging on the crosses, and thus hasten their deaths (John 19:31).
But it’s interesting to note that the chief priests were deliberately trying to avoid having this happen on the feast day. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which follows immediately after Passover, was one of the feasts for which it was compulsory that every able-bodied Jewish male come to Jerusalem to celebrate. There would have been crowds of people from all over Israel, and no doubt they would have heard of Jesus. To see Him killed at this time could have incited a riot – and if that happened, the Romans would come down heavy on the nation.
But Jesus was crucified on the Passover. He had to be, in order to fulfil the prophecy as being our passover lamb, sacrificed in our place so that we might have life (1 Cor. 5:7). God’s timing over-ruled theirs. He was in complete control of the events.