1. Took counsel with the Herodians

1. Filled with madness
2. Communed with one another
3. What they might do

1. Pharisees
2. Held a council
3. How they might destroy him

Issues

1. Sabbath -- They went out from the synagogue
   1. Their real motive was hatred of the Lord, while their pretext was that he had broken the Sabbath. While professing to be very religious, they were really the servants of the evil one.  People's New Testament Commentary
   2. There are many who abandon themselves to debauchery on the Sabbath, who condemn a poor man whom necessity obliges to work on what is termed a holiday, or a national fast.  Adam Clarke Commentary
2. Pharisees -- Theocratic political party supporting orthodox Judaism
3. Herodians -- Secular political party supporting Herod
   1. As bitter as they usually were against each other.  John Wesley Notes
   2. Already these inveterate enemies were resolved to destroy Jesus.   People's New Testament Commentary
   3. They needed the secular power of the Herodians to secure the death of Jesus.  Fourfold Gospel
   4. This is the first mention of the Herodians or adherents of Herod Antipas and the Herod family rather than the Romans.  Robertson's New Testament Word Pictures
4. Madness
   1. Pride, obstinacy, and interest, combined together, are capable of any thing. When men have once framed their conscience according to their passions, madness passes for zeal, the blackest conspiracies for pious designs, and the most horrid attempts for heroic actions.  Adam Clarke Commentary
   2. Because...
      1. He had shown his power to work a miracle.
      2. He had shown his power to do it contrary to what they thought was right.
      3. By doing it he had shown that he was from God, and that they were therefore wrong in their views of the Sabbath.
      4. He had shown no respect to their views of what the law of God demanded. Pride, obstinacy, malice, and disappointed self- confidence were all combined, therefore, in producing madness. Nor were they alone. Men are often enraged because others do good in a way which they do not approve of. God gives success to others; and because he has not accommodated himself to their views of what is right, and done it in the way which they would have prescribed, they are enraged, and filled with envy at men more successful than themselves.
         Albert Barnes New Testament Commentary
   3. Great zeal for human traditions and the commandments of men may consist with enmity to God and deep malignity against those who obey him.
      Family Bible Notes
   4. The word denotes senseless rage at the confusion to which our Lord had put them, both by word and deed.  Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary
5. Conspiracy
   1. Council -- Assembly gathered to make formal decisions
   2. Counsel -- Advice, instruction, guidance, admonition, opinion
   3. Commune -- Form a common mind, unite in consensus, share in common
6. Destroy
   1. But their doubt was not, whether to get rid of Him, but how to compass it.  Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary
   2. Observe their cruelty; they took counsel, not to imprison or banish him, but to destroy him, to be the death of him who came that we might have life. What an indignity was hereby put upon our Lord Jesus, to run him down as an outlaw and the plague of his country, who was the greatest blessing of it, the Glory of his people Israel!   Matthew Henry Commentary
   3. This incident marks a crisis in the hatred of the Pharisees toward Jesus. They bolted out of the synagogue and actually conspired with their hated rivals, the Herodians, how to put Jesus to death. By "destroy" (apolesôsin) they meant "kill."  Robertson's New Testament Word Pictures
   4. Their killing of Jesus was indeed the result of malice aforethought, for they deliberately, planned their cruel deed. Spurgeon's Commentary on Matthew
   5. They hated him for his holiness; because he reproved them; because he laid open their hypocrisy; and because he won the hearts of the people, and lessened their influence. They therefore determined to remove him, if possible, and thus avoid his reproofs. Sinners would often rather put to death the man that reproves them, than to forsake their sins. The Pharisees had rather commit any crime, even to the murder of the Messiah, than forsake the sins of which he rebuked them.  Albert Barnes New Testament Commentary
   6. A striking illustration of the alternatives of Jesus a few moments before, "to save life or to kill." Robertson's New Testament Word Pictures