Pastor Barry's  Chapter & Verse"  Day 9

January 9;   Luke 20:26;   64/260(VI);   ‘Pride is Deadly’

Luke 20:26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.      NIV

Over and over the religious leaders tried, by questions, to draw Jesus into something He said so that they could accuse Him.  This never happened.  Quite the contrary, this verse and others teach us that Jesus’ answers made them marvel.  How incredible, they were determined to put Him to death and were looking for any opportunity to arrest Him.  If you think about this, this is very frightening and reveals that they were so deceived and prideful, that they were willing to eternally condemn themselves out of hatred for the most wonderful Man who ever lived.  Mankind’s nature without the Lord is pride and pride is deadly.  The religious leaders were amazed at what Jesus said and they knew He did miracles.  They were outraged when He healed a person on the Sabbath.  Their religious dogma wouldn’t allow for mercy and compassion.  Confronted by Jesus, they were humiliated and ashamed of their hard heartedness, but it never seemed to cause them to repent and change.  They never ‘tripped Him up’ by the trick questions they asked Him.  I cannot believe that because of these things, that they did not know that indeed He was the Messiah.  These religious hypocrites enjoyed the favor of the people, the best seats at a feast and were greedy for money.  They saw Jesus as a threat to their popularity.  Most of them, thank goodness not all, refused to believe on Jesus because of jealousy and pride.  We do not know how many of the religious leaders changed and did put their trust in Jesus.  If they did not change, their temporary success status here, was turned into an eternity of suffering.