"...But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him." - Mt. 12:14
Destroy Jesus? Really? It's a laughable proposition. Yet it seems to be the mission of those in Jesus' day who were religious for religion's sake. Jesus was utterly offensive to them. The things He taught. The things He did. The day upon which He did them. The authority He claimed in all of His teaching and doing. Who did He think that He was? God?
We're quick to gather the perfect throwing stones when we read stuff like Matthew 12:14. But I'm not sure how foreign the conspiracy is to us religious types in our day and in our contexts. We wouldn't dream of destroying Jesus! Right? We can't imagine even being thought of as opposing Jesus. Why, look at all of the religious stuff with which we busy ourselves. Yet, it's true that we have made an idol of religion. It's true that when Jesus rubs our religious fur the wrong way we hiss and show our claws (in a tidy, religious way of course). It is true that while we may not make a concerted or overt attempt to destroy Jesus, by our allegiance to what we have known and practiced traditionally and religiously we are unconsciously waging war on Jesus' Kingdom agenda. I'm not suggesting that we indiscriminately scrap the old and look for something new. Indeed scrapping the old for the sake of scrapping the old is no more noble than functioning religiously for the sake of religion alone. I think what I am suggesting is that we be willing to examine all of it beneath the lens of divine revelation, expectations and agendas and be willing to part with that which brings nothing to the Kingdom table and embrace and engage ourselves in all the things that do. In the end Jesus and His Kingdom continue undeterred - and as for the conspirators? Well..............
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