Let us cut him off from the land of the living so that his name will be spoken no more. As we get closer to the celebration of the paschal mysteries commemorated in the events of the Holy Week, the readings continue to remind us of the fate that awaited Jesus in Jerusalem. The accusations against Jesus were getting increasingly heightened, with the religious authorities determined to see Jesus silenced at any and at all cost. The whole saga revolved around the Messiahship of Jesus: the religious authorities saw him as an imposter and a disrupter of their way of doing things! They had come to realize that they couldn’t continue accusing him based only on what he was doing or saying (healing on the Sabbath or saying that God was his Father), so they upped their game to include discrediting him. This is why they turned their focus on Jesus’ background. To them, Jesus’ claim that he was a prophet did not hold any water because Jesus was hailing from Galilee. The truth or falsehood of Jesus’ claim to be a prophet notwithstanding, this was no reason to want to silence him (Pilate would later on also come to such a conclusion [cf. Luke 23:14b-16]). Their grievance against Jesus was triggered by something else. It is a grievance that religious authorities have had against prophets since the institution of prophecy (cf. Acts 7:51-53).  
A prophet’s call is to show the people the right path which they have to take, the path to the true God. This is a responsibility that most often puts a prophet in a collision course with the people because a prophet is always raised and sent by God when a people have strayed from their call to fidelity. Jesus, as a prophet, could not escape this fate. His mere presence constantly reminded the people of their infidelity to God and to the covenant. His actions reminded the religious authorities of their neglect of their shepherding responsibility. His words came to them as criticism and a call to repentance (never before has anyone spoken like this man [John 7:46]). A true prophet can never escape persecution because a prophet will always be on the side of truth. Jesus was very much aware of this and so he didn’t let the side-shows of his distractors keep him from doing his job. He was not afraid of a prophet’s fate.