When he was here on earth, Jesus was a perfect human being. He was humble, loving, kind, and obedient to God. He healed the sick and raised the dead. He willingly came to earth and preached God’s beautiful message of the coming kingdom. He gave himself as a ransom sacrifice to cancel out Adam’s sin of disobedience. By doing so, everyone who has ever lived will have an opportunity to live again in the future resurrection! When we study Jesus’ life and character, it’s hard to imagine there were people who did not love and appreciate him – mainly the scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish leaders of that time.

Many of them were prideful because of their high positions in society. They loved to be respected as authorities on God’s word and Jesus knew it. In Mark, (12:38, 39, NIV) “…Jesus said, ‘Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.’”

As he taught, Jesus revealed their TRUE nature! He correctly pointed out that they were hypocrites – a hypocrite is someone who pretends to act one way and then secretly acts in the opposite way.

Many were jealous of Jesus and afraid of losing their power and influence – what if the people respected Jesus MORE and started listening to HIM instead of THEM?

They also didn’t believe Jesus was the son of God. They falsely accused him of blasphemy. Blasphemy means speaking against God. This was the OPPOSITE of what Jesus did!

The Pharisees thought they had the correct interpretation of the Law, and here was Jesus, explaining to everyone why they were wrong in so many ways. This made them angry!

Instead of repenting and humbly learning from Jesus, they plotted to kill him. (See Matthew 12:14, 26:3,4)

While Jesus’ death was an extremely painful experience, and it makes us very sad to think about it, in the end, he was successful in his mission, which means there will be future blessings for everyone!

So, why didn’t some people like Jesus? Many of the scribes and Pharisees were prideful and jealous. They didn’t believe Jesus was the son of God. They especially didn’t like his teachings because they showed everyone that they were wrong and hypocritical.

Having power and authority over others is a tricky thing – we see this problem in our society today. Many who enjoy high positions unfortunately use their influence to benefit themselves.

But for perfect spirit beings like God and Jesus, THEIR power and authority will ALWAYS be used righteously, in ways that are fair to ALL people!

This video is from Christian Questions Podcast. For more information please go to https://christianquestions.com