When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.” So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake. (Mark 8:11-38)There are times that you get so tired of some people. They are constantly on your case, constantly trying to make you irritated – and succeeding – and just want to keep things in a turmoil.
With them is no peace, so they will not allow peace with you either. Everything you say is “hurtful” to them, or they see hidden agendas or impure motives.
Their problem is that they hate themselves so they transfer that hatred to you. They are looking for a reason to be angry at life, and you are handy.
The Pharisees were a bitter bunch. It is obvious from their lives. They were lives of constant arguing and posturing, preening and jockeying for position. They were not happy and were always looking for someone else to make them happy by giving them honor or preeminence.
Jesus refused to do this. He just did his job (seeking and saving the lost – Luke 19) and refused to play games with them. Since life to them was all games, it made them angry. And if they were angry, someone else was at fault. God wanted them to be happy and prestigious and someone was stealing their glory.
So every time Jesus saw them, they wanted to argue. They came out with a list of stuff that they didn’t like about him and began to complain. They demanded over and over that he show his authority and power to them so that they could have some control over the situation. But Jesus refused.
And there came a time when he was tired of them and their constant arguing. So he told them to go away and leave him alone. They didn’t, of course. People like that never do. They did what they did best: character assassination.
When they could not completely impugn his motives or his background, they decided to kill him. Their last ditch effort was to get rid of him. If they could not control him, they would get rid of him.
Churches are like that today, unfortunately. There are some in the church that are empowered by personal status or the fact that the church has never disciplined them who make it their job to try to control the preacher. When they can’t, they drive him off. They do it to preacher after preacher and no one stops them. And no one understands why the church won’t grow.
These men and their ancestors did this to every prophet who came to them. And they thought it was normal.
What a shame to treat the kingdom of God like your own power conduit.
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