Evidently, the point that Jesus was making was that it was appropriate and to be expected that if the Jews were to kill a prophet, and especially the Messiah, it would be in Jerusalem.

One reason for this was that Jerusalem was the location of the seventy-one member Sanhedrin or high court. According to God’s law, a false prophet was to die. (Deut. 18:20) The Jewish Mishna explains: “He was not condemned to death either by the court that was in his own city or by the court that was in Jabneh, but he was brought up to the Great Court [Sanhedrin] that was in Jerusalem.” (Sanhedrin, sec. 11, par. 4) So, since the Sanhedrin met only at Jerusalem, and it was before this body that “false” prophets would be tried, condemned and killed, Jesus could make the comment he did, knowing that the Jewish religious leaders did not accept him as a true prophet of God.

As things worked out, what Jesus said came true. He was taken before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem and condemned. And it was there at Jerusalem, just beyond the city walls, that he died.