No one could answer him. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22:46)Near the end of Jesus’ life, the questions from the religious leaders got fast and furious. They were trying their level best to trick him into some open heresy that everybody could hear. But they never could.
Every time he answered them, he would answer them with an obscure reference that dealt with their question perfectly. And he, so often, would preface it with “Have you not read?”
Of course, they had read. They were big men, important in the Jewish faith. They had advanced degrees and loved to show off their learning and education. But they were thinking in terms of entrapment, and Jesus was thinking in terms of God’s will. The two do not go well together.
And when he would answer them in such a way as to make them look foolish, it made them so angry. In fact, angry enough to kill him.
They finally got to the point that they didn’t dare ask him anything else. They were into damage control as it was. The crowds loved Jesus’ ability to skewer the leaders and their self-importance. They loved his ability to make those who were making their own lives hard look foolish.
And what was even better, he did it so easily, considering that he was one of them: just an ordinary guy from somewhere ordinary. Jesus was just a carpenter from a small town. He had never been to seminary, he had never had a lot of formal education.
Yet he had the ability to say just the right thing to shut these people up. And the crowds loved it.
But the leaders hated it. And so the plans for Jesus’ death were born. Not out of noble reasons, or heavy religious thought, but out of jealousy.
For the most part, people get mad at church leaders not because of what they say, but because they themselves are not treated as important. To them, Jesus’ problem was that he did not give them the respect they felt they were due. And they were willing to kill because of the jealousy.
In churches, there are people who feel like they should be in charge. And if not in charge, then respected, looked up to, made to feel important. And if they are not, they are willing to drive the preacher and his family out, tear the church up, rip and shred.
Their own desire for preeminence is greater than their desire for the will of God.
They were then, and they are still today.
How it must break Jesus’ heart.
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