The people wondered whether Jesus would risk coming to Jerusalem. The council had taken counsel to put Him to death (John 11:53), and the chief priests and Pharisees had ordered that anyone who knew where He was should report it, "that they might take him" (John 11:57). Barnes explains why they were unsure: "On the one hand, it was required by law that all males should come. On the other, his coming was attended with great danger." Gill notes that people sought Him for different reasons, "some out of curiosity to see his person, others to see his miracles, and others to hear his doctrine," and some, it may be, to hand Him over. The question presses each listener for an opinion: would Jesus keep the feast, or stay away for safety?

No one in the temple is recorded giving an answer. The story itself answers the question. "Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany" (John 12:1), and the next day He rode into Jerusalem while the people cried, "Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord" (John 12:12-13). He did not hide from the feast. He came openly, knowing that "his hour was come" (John 13:1).

The law commanded that three times a year "all thy males appear before the LORD thy God," and the feast of unleavened bread (the passover) was one of those times (Deuteronomy 16:16). Before eating the passover, people who were ceremonially unclean had to be cleansed, which is why many came early "to purify themselves" (John 11:55). Barnes says this purifying meant "preparing themselves for the proper observation of the Passover, according to the commands of the law." John often calls it "the Jews' passover" (John 2:13; John 11:55). This is the passover at which Jesus would die. Gill calls it "the last he ate with his disciples."

The crowd's question is about courage, but the larger story is about God's timing. For a time Jesus "walked no more openly among the Jews" and stayed at Ephraim (John 11:54). But when the passover came, He walked straight into the city where the leaders had ordered that He be reported and taken (John 11:57; John 12:12-13). Barnes sees here the choice that faced Jesus: "Danger was on the one hand, and duty on the other." And "He chose, as all should, to do his duty, and leave the event with God."

The council had its plan, the crowd had its guesses, and God had His purpose. Caiaphas had just said that one man should die for the people, and John explains that he spoke more than he knew, for Jesus would die to "gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad" (John 11:50-52). Matthew Henry writes, "No devices of man can alter the purposes of God."