Written by Rev. Dr. Timothy Ehrlich
Did you ever wonder how in the world the religious leaders, of all people, would call for the crucifixion of Jesus? Over the years that I have been a pastor, that is one of the questions that really bothered me – how did the Jewish religious leaders, who were all worshippers of God, not see that the power of God was in Jesus? He healed the sick right in front of them, healed the crippled and the blind, even raised several people back to life. Even those who were not supporters recognized his miraculous powers:
Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” John 10:20-21 (NLT)
There were several things that Jesus said and did that the Bible tells us made the religious authorities want to kill him but the first and most significant to them was when he healed on the Sabbath day.
Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.) And he answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So, the man held out his hand, and it was restored, just like the other one! Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus. Matthew 12:9-14 (NLT)
So, Jesus didn’t just heal the man, first he addressed the Pharisees question with sound scripture-based theology. They ignored his words and looked only at his actions. It seems stunning to us today that instead of seeing that the power of God was at work in the miraculous healing Jesus performed, all they saw was a man breaking the religious law against working on the Sabbath, and that made him deserving of death. There is an old saying, ‘there are none so blind as those who refuse to see.’
The answer to the mysterious blindness of the religious leaders is simple: they were so hyper focused on obedience to God that they missed the Spirit right in front of them. This is a battle Paul pointed out in his letter to the Galatians, and it is a battle that still goes on in the church today, the disagreement between those who focus on the letter of the law and those who give preference to the Spirit.
4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, What is important is faith expressing itself in love… 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. Galatians 5:4-6, 18 (NLT)
When Paul writes “you are not under obligation to the law of Moses” he doesn’t mean the ten commandments, is talking about the 613 laws in the Old Testament, which cover every detail of daily life 24/7/365, including hair style, clothing fabrics, and animal sacrifice, etc. It is hard for us today to understand the depths and extent of the Jewish hyper focus on obedience, but its roots extended back over 1000 years before the birth of Jesus.
The Jewish leaders led Israel into ever increasing obedience over a 600-year span as a result of three factors:
Factor #1 which prompted the Pharisees to demand Jesus’ crucifixion
The first and most important factor was the Babylonian captivity. In 586 BC the nation of Israel (then a divided nation with a northern and southern Kingdom) was over run and taken over by the Babylonian empire. All the main political leaders were executed, the capital city (Jerusalem) was burned to the ground, and the artisans, craftsmen, and scholars (who were the Pharisees) were taken as captives to Babylon (hence the Old Testament book of Lamentations).
The religious leaders rightly discerned that God allowed the destruction of Israel as the natural consequence of their failure to obey God’s commandments. The message that went out to the people was, “We brought this upon ourselves by our lack of obedience (to God), and we can never let that be repeated!” When the Jews were released from Babylon and given their freedom in 538 BC by Cyrus the Great, they returned to Israel believing if they were obedient to God their nation would never be conquered again!
Factor #2 which prompted the Pharisees to demand Jesus’ crucifixion
The second motivating factor was the growing expectation and anticipation about the coming Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. Moses had predicted another special leader from God like himself (Deuteronomy 18:15-18); that was about 1400 BC. Isaiah predicted a Messiah to be about 750 BC (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 11:1-2, and 52:13- 53:12). After all this time of waiting for the message, the only thing the religious leaders took from it was that the Messiah would only come if the people were completely obedient.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 1:18-20 (ESV)
Factor #3 which prompted the Pharisees to demand Jesus’ crucifixion
The third factor motivating the religious leaders to guide the people to strict obedience was the corrupting influence of the incredible money stream generated by and controlled by the office of high priest. The high priest was in charge of collecting taxes for the ruling nations and for the upkeep of the temple and with its sacrifices. In those days the leaders taught that the only way you could be forgiven for your sins was through the giving of an animal to be sacrificed; but only the priests could sacrifice your animal for you and only at the temple in Jerusalem (Leviticus 4:1 – 5:13).
The priests were given a portion of every offering which made them rich (Leviticus 6:17, 7:35), and they paid a portion of what they received to the high priest (Leviticus 7:31-36). Hazard a guess who wrote these laws in the Bible specifying that the priests would become rich. If you guessed it was the priests (who were Pharisees) you would be correct.
The office of high priest was determined by the nations who were ruling Israel as a means of control. When the Babylonians captured Israel and killed the political leaders, they appointed a high priest as the political and religious leader in charge of collecting taxes on their behalf. When the Persians took over, then the Greeks, then the Romans they all followed the same pattern.
Israel remained under the control of outside nations from 586 BC right up through and past the lifetime of Jesus, and the high priests were the highest authority in the land. The priests and high priests used their power to strengthen their hold on the population.
Ezra is a great example of the power the priesthood exerted: he was a priest, a scribe, and a Pharisee appointed by the Persian King Artaxerxes to be the ruler of Israel (and tax collector). Two passages from the Old Testament book of Ezra clarify the power he as the chief religious authority wielded.
“And you, Ezra, are to use the wisdom your God has given you to appoint magistrates and judges who know your God’s laws to govern all the people in the province west of the Euphrates River. Teach the law to anyone who does not know it. Anyone who refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king will be punished immediately, either by death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.” Ezra 7:25-26 (NLT)
He had exclusive power to confiscate, jail, or execute anyone. There were over 25 different offenses against religious laws listed in the Old Testament that carried the death penalty, many for violations of their laws that would not even get someone arrested today, such as disrespecting your parents (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
In a passage too long to quote here (Ezra 10:18-44) we see that Ezra’s power and control was so great that he forced all of the priests who had intermarried with non-Jews during the years of the Babylonian captivity to send their wives and children away, and they did so! So, Israel in the time of Jesus was a complete theocracy.
The Maccabean Rebellion
The Maccabean revolt in 167 BC was a religious based revolt against a Greek ruler who tried to end the Jewish religion. When the rebellion was successful (celebrated in the holiday of Hanukah) it led to a religious revival and even stricter obedience to the Jewish laws. How far did the people go in their obedience to the Jewish laws? Some of the rebels together with their wives and children encountered Greek forces but refused to fight because it would be working on the Sabbath day and so they all were slaughtered!
Archeological Findings
A recent article in Biblical Archeology Review revealed that this hyper focus on obedience is also reflected in the archeological record. What the archeological evidence showed was the sudden proliferation of carved stone ritual bathing pools called mikveh (Leviticus 11:36) and stone plates and cups (Exodus 24:12, 31:18, Deuteronomy 10:1-5) that only come into widespread use throughout Israel beginning around 150 BC and continuing up through the time of Jesus ministry.
In Jewish dietary law wooden or ceramic plates or cups could become ritually unclean from dozens of causes and if unclean they had to be broken; but stone plates and cups did not. Archeologists found many mikveh and stone plates and cups in large numbers dateing only to that limited time frame whereas Jewish law, required for hundreds of years, had never come into popular use until 150 BC. This is clear evidence, literally carved in stone, of a super focus on obedience during that time frame.
Conclusion
So, obedience to the Old Testament laws had reached its peak at around the time of Jesus and this was the primary cause of Jesus being put to death, and that is how they could be blind to Jesus or ignore the obvious evidence of his miracles. They saw Jesus’ miracles performed on the Sabbath day as a clear violation of the fourth of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:8-11 Deuteronomy 5:12-15) to do no work on the Sabbath day, a death penalty offense. They could not conceive of miracles being performed outside of strict obedience to their religious laws.
Honestly, even though I understand the social context of Israel in those days it still breaks my heart to think of religious leaders so intently focused on obedience to every law of God that they could not recognize the son of God when he was performing miracles right in front of them. If you ever wanted an example of how stupid people can be, how blind we can be to what is right in front of our faces, you can find no better example than the failure of religious leaders which caused the death of the Son of God.
Another related and interesting article can be found at;
Spiritual Meditations 