Show me a sign.

In the New Testament, we read over and over about the Pharisees and Jewish council members testing Jesus. Asking him for a sign. Trying to catch him breaking Roman and Jewish laws so that they could persecute this man who was ruining their rep and overturning what they had grown up learning was right.

And because hindsight is 20/20, I would always think, "Goodness, these Pharisees are so blind. They're just so desperate to cling to their religion and customs that they can't see the LORD in front of them."

And while I still hold onto that view, Pastor Sam's sermon on Sunday shed some new light to the situation that gives the Pharisees much more credit.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5.

They were, ironically, trying to follow God's word in persecuting Jesus. This passage describes a false prophet who would come doing miracles, leading them to follow gods they did not know. And God commanded that the false prophet was to be put to death.

Imagine being one of the Pharisees, forewarned that this type of prophet was coming. Then Jesus comes around, calling people to follow him (and to them, Jesus = not God). Plus, this man is going around performing miracles, so your duty as a follower of God's Word would seem to be: catch Jesus as the false prophet and get rid of this threat. God said so.

They had to prove that Jesus was indeed what Deuteronomy 13 describes, so they tried several times to catch him in the act. They asked for miracles and signs, not as proof of his Lordship, but to be used as incriminating evidence against him. Which of course, is why Jesus often denied them and owned them with his penetrating words instead. Jesus could have easily doled out a miracle, but he knew their hearts and exposed their deceitful traps.

But the Pharisees really did think it was their God-given decree to put this "false prophet" to death. Hence the hot pursuit and ultimate death of Jesus Christ. (But of course, thank God for that, because it led to Jesus' atonement for our sins)

So it wasn't just that they couldn't accept or understand Jesus' miraculous powers. It wasn't just that they were outraged that this man was breaking laws that God had specifically told them to follow. Their persecution was genuinely rooted in the word.

Sad and ironic, isn't it? They thought they were being good, righteous, God-fearing believers, but it was their lack of faith and their inability to see Jesus for who he was that condemned them. This man was too radical for them. Too human. Too counter-cultural.

So even though Pharisees knew the Word inside and out, if these serious, legitimate Bible scholars could end up condemning themselves, it shows me that the interpretation of His Word is not to be taken lightly. And more importantly, if we cannot see God in his whole triune self in light of the Word, then we are just as blind as the Pharisees. We cannot pick and choose pieces of the Bible that fit what we want it to, or else we risk facing the same self-righteous fate.