That tells us that Jesus was much more knowledgeable about the Scriptures than some of the Pharisees were. The Pharisees were always trying to get Jesus to say something controversial so that they could charge Him with blasphemy. They would want to do this, as the punishment for blaspheming was death.
One example of the Pharisees trying to get Him killed is in the story about taxes. They asked Him whether they should pay taxes as it went to the Romans, who then built temples for their ‘false’ gods. If Jesus had told the Pharisees to pay taxes, He would have lost all credibility with his followers, as they did not want to pay taxes. However, if He had said don’t pay the taxes then, the Pharisees could have reported Him to the Romans who would have executed Him for conspiring against them. Jesus realises the trap in the question and evades it skilfully by asking someone to give Him a coin. As these have the Emperor’s head on, they belong to Him and so they should ‘pay the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay God what belongs to God.’
The careful evasions of the question make sure Jesus cannot be prosecuted or disappoint His followers. This is a good quality; Jesus has to make sure that His job on Earth goes perfectly according to God’s plan. Although it is a good quality, it also makes the Pharisees resentful towards Jesus and makes their anger escalate so much that they want to have Him sentenced to death.
During His time on Earth, Jesus does some very controversial things which either make people like Him or hate Him. One of the first reported things he does is to eat with ‘sinners’. When the Pharisees arrive to reprimand Jesus, they ask why he is eating with such ‘outcasts’. Jesus responds, ‘People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.’ This shows that Jesus wants to save the people who need saving, rather than those who don’t. The Pharisees do not believe in that as they believe that people with a disability or illness have ‘sinned’ and so this justifies them being ill. Jesus, on the other hand, believes all people can be saved if they truly have faith and want to be free from their sins. (This can be seen at Church services particularly at Baptism and Confirmation where they repent ‘the sins that separate us from God and neighbour’).
At times during the Gospel, Jesus prophesised His death to His disciples three times. Each time he prophesised he grew stronger and more courageous to face His death, until just before His arrest where he prayed that ‘he might not have to go through that time of suffering’. The first and second predictions are just to His Apostles, about the Son of Man’s fate. Although, the Apostles know he is the Son of Man, they do not understand Him and are afraid of His prediction. The third time he speaks about His death, he tells His Apostles and His followers when he is entering Jerusalem. This time His prediction is much more graphic and tells exactly how the Romans will arrest and condemn Him. Though Jesus is not afraid of His approaching fate, His disciples probably are, as they may not want to be without Jesus who has lead them through their growing faith.
Although Jesus was divine, he was also a man with emotions. A clear display of His feelings is when he turns the tables in the Temple. He feels really angry about how the House of God is being used for money-changing and people making profits out of other’s faith. He stopped Gentiles making a shortcut through the Temple; they did this because the Temple was in the middle of the city and it was easy to walk through the Temple rather than to go through the backstreets to get to the other side. Jesus’ anger would have shocked many people as he was claiming that the Temple was His Temple and that it was full of thieves.
It is not surprising that after this spectacle in the Temple the High Priests and the Pharisees wanted Jesus dead. It was two days before the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread that the priests and Teachers of the Law met and discussed how to arrest Jesus. They wanted to have Him arrested quietly, and without many people noticing as they knew how popular Jesus was, and were scared the people would riot. The only problem was that the Jews did not know where Jesus was to be found; soon they overcame this problem when Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 Apostles, came to them. He would tell them where Jesus was and they would give Him money for doing so.
Throughout Mark’s Gospel there are clues that Jesus was always outsmarting the Jewish authorities. Although he was a Jew himself, he did not agree with the laws of Judaism or the ways Judaism had changed itself during the Roman occupation of Palestine. Jesus thought that they authorities should stop letting money-changers into the Temple and there are many other examples.
It could be said that originally it would not have been inevitable for Jesus’ sentencing to death had he not have lived His life the way he had. If he had accepted His faith for what it was then the authorities would have never come across Him and wanted Him dead.
But being the Son of God, it was His duty to save the world from its sins and the only way he could do that was by dying for us. Had the Jewish authorities not sentenced Him, He would not have died for us and so we would still be sinners. From the beginning of his mission Jesus knew what He had to do to save the world and he accepted it as His responsibility.
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