Why did the Pharisees hate Jesus so much?
I've concluded that Jesus’ radical and revolutionary approach to ministry ruffled the the geopolitical and religious feathers of the day. The Pharisees we’re worried about their religious ideologies being challenged. The Roman occupiers were interested in keeping the Jews quiet and submissive, that nothing good could come from the miracle workers growing popularity.
Jesus wasn’t interested in approval or power, as were the Romans and Pharisees. Jesus questioned the way the Pharisees were living and instead taught a higher law, inviting all to come unto Him. He was on an inevitable collision course with the Pharisees and Sadducees. He was always merciful toward the tax collectors and harlots who came to Him; He was their friend. This irked the religious leaders of Jesus' day. Jesus was always a bit more harsh with the religious hypocrites and hucksters who oppressed and manipulated people with their legalism and corrupted the sacred ideals of worship with the base motives of profit.
I landed here as I asked myself this question: Why did the Pharisees hate Jesus so much? I think Jesus exposed their tarnished hearts - they were laid open, bare for all to see. Jesus saw right through that rusty hearts. The Pharisee’s stained and oxidized hearts revealed a testing and demanding mindset:
"...One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, demanding that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. He replied ... Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. Then Jesus left them and went away..."
A miraculous sign. Jesus had settled the this issue when He refused the temptation to leap from the pinnacle of the temple in order to display Himself irrefutably as God. Jesus bluntly told the Pharisees that no sign would be given to this kind (“generation”) of people. And their anger with Jesus grew.
History records that the Pharisees called a meeting to form a plan:
"...Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested..." Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
I simple takeaway from this story is that the Pharisees weren’t looking for Messiah. What are your thoughts?