In today’s story, we see the Pharisees create a diversion. They want to generate doubt. Up to this point in history, they controlled the miracles. They talked directly to God. They had all the power. But, Jesus gets in the way of that. He was drawing attention to himself by doing things that nobody else could do. Feeling their power slip away, they had to do something.
“He gets his power from Satan,” they said in an attempt to discredit Jesus. Others taunted him to perform another miracle.
Jesus masterfully puts them in their place. They never stood a chance.
As I review this story, I marvel at the audacity of the Pharisees. How could they call out Jesus like that? They were supposed to be his biggest fans! Problem is, Jesus got inconvenient. Guess what? Jesus will become inconvenient for you too.
Larry Osborne describes this potential best. In his book Accidental Pharisees, He writes “In the same way, we can wax eloquent about Jesus and the Scriptures. We can praise him. Sing to him. Speak out in his defense. Yet when he shows up in ways that we don’t expect, that we don’t agree with, or that make us uncomfortable, we can fight him tooth and nail.”
Osborne, Larry. Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith (p. 27). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.