Life Project Blog

Mark 10:13-31

Jesus has now left Galilee behind and crossed into Judea, and the crowds are large. In the first part of this passage, the Pharisees attempt to trap Him with a question about divorce. Surely they are aware of His teaching on the subject in the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus took a tough stand on the subject, saying that divorce is not permissible except for “unfaithfulness”. Please recall that “unfaithfulness” is a covenant term, and not necessarily a sexual term.  Apparently, the Pharisees hoped to catch Jesus in a legal trap, since divorce was permitted under the Law of Moses, but as you might expect, they were no match for Him.

Then there is the incident of the little children being kept away from Jesus by His disciples, and Jesus’ displeased reaction, much as we have seen before. Then Jesus has a visit from a rich guy, a visit that brings the first two incidents into sharp focus.

It seems that this rich guy was quite a righteous man, and Jesus had an interesting reaction:

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Mark 10:21-22

The man told Jesus that he had kept the commandments since he was a boy, and Jesus looked at him and loved him. I highly doubt that Jesus loved the man because the man had somehow “purchased” His love by keeping commandments; clearly the man had a good heart and desired to follow God. Yet in the end, he goes away sad, for he was very wealthy. Before we continue, I must point out that the text does not say that the man didn’t do as Jesus asked, it only says that he was sad.

In verses 23-26, we see the reaction of the disciples to all of this, and Jesus’ teaching on the subject. The disciples were surprised that it is difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom, Jesus underscores the point with a little bit of hyperbole:  “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people cite this and claim the rich are all going to hell, but that is foolish talk, and more about modern-day politics than Jesus’ teaching… this is hyperbole to make a point: It’s hard! The disciples ask how anyone can be saved, and Jesus gives the answer that sums up this section:

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Mark 10:27

Neither you nor I can force our way into heaven, but with God we can get there. We are imperfect, we mess up, we stumble around and struggle with rule books and traditions and the things of this world, but God makes all things possible through Christ. This rich guy had a great deal of earthly wealth, and that is hard to walk away from, and the same is true today. If a person is homeless, with nothing to their name but the shirt on their back, they have nothing to lose in following Christ, but someone with a great deal…? They have a great deal to lose. Yet for each one of us, there is more in following Jesus than leaving money or wealth behind, for these are only physical things; we are called to leave self behind, and that is hard for any one of us to do, no matter what our balance sheet may say.

Yet with God, all things are possible!

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Mark 10:28-31

The disciples had left their livelihoods and careers behind to follow Jesus, many will be called to do that, and others may need to leave their families behind, but all will receive much more both in this life and in eternity, and when we are willing to follow Jesus and leave all of the old ways behind, our God is ever-faithful to keep His promises. It is true that many will say we’re crazy, for setting self aside is not the way of this world, but it is God’s way; it is the line that separates those who are in Christ from those who refuse to follow Him.

Mark 9:14-29

When Jesus, Peter, James and John returned to the other disciples after the transfiguration, there was a dispute in progress; the teachers of the Law were arguing with the disciples. The people in the crowd see Jesus and come running to Him. “What are you arguing about?” He asks, but before they could answer a man steps up and begs Jesus to help his son who was possessed by an impure spirit. (Mark does not record for us what the argument was about.)

The man goes into a fair amount of detail regarding his poor son’s plight, and tells Jesus that His disciples on the scene were unable to drive the demon out of the boy, and asks Jesus to do it. Jesus’ answer is puzzling:

“You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

Mark 9:19

Mark doesn’t elaborate on what Jesus was referring to here. When the spirit saw Jesus, it went wild within the boy.

Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:21-24

The demon is going crazy in the boy, people are watching, nobody has answered His previous question, and yet Jesus seems as cool as a cucumber. That poor father tells Jesus of the horrors of the boy’s life, can you imagine what that must have been like? Then the man says something perfectly reasonable, but Jesus doesn’t seem to think so. “If you can do something.” Nobody else had been able, but Jesus isn’t just anybody else!

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Everything is possible? Really? Do you believe that? Why am I so often told so much about what can’t be done?

The man made a snap decision: He was going to believe; he even realized that he might need help moving forward, but he was going to start believing right then and there.

Jesus drove out the demon right then and there.

As I read this, I see that we have come face-to-face with one of those moments when we need to ask ourselves if we really believe that what we believe is really real.

Well, do we?

The disciples ask Jesus why they had been unable to drive this spirit out of the boy, and Jesus seems to give an almost nonchalant answer: “This kind can come out only by prayer.” What did Jesus mean by this remark?

The text doesn’t say.

I’ve read commentaries in which the author professes to know exactly what Jesus meant by that, and while confidence is all well and good, the truth is that we can only speculate and wonder… oh, and did someone say something about prayer? Yes, maybe it has something to do with prayer.

A Bright Future

In the last part of Mark, we saw some interesting things. We saw Peter get it wrong, after being so right on the money only a short time earlier. Remember how he was the first to state out loud who Jesus was: The Messiah, the Son of the living God? Then, as Jesus predicts His own death and resurrection, Peter takes Jesus aside to straighten Him out; no Lord, you mustn’t die… and how Jesus rebukes Peter for his lack of understanding. And then, you might recall how Jesus taught that we must not be concerned with things that are merely of the earthly life, and with earthly views, but rather how we must learn to set all of that aside to follow Him. Yes, we saw many things!

There was one more thing that Jesus told them on that occasion, one more thing that would tie everything else together, a wonderful thing…

And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Mark 9:1

Jesus has been teaching that the Kingdom was at hand, and all along the way, He has been doing and saying things that illustrate what the Kingdom would be like, and I have pointed those out to you as we’ve gone along the way. Things like how He was preaching righteousness, healing the sick and lame, driving out demons, forgiving sins, and even raising someone from the dead. The Kingdom would be like that, for it would remove the penalty for sin through forgiveness, and ultimately it would restore Mankind to the relationship with God that had been lost when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. Those afflictions like sickness, blindness and the loss of limbs were consequences of that rebellion, as was oppression by evil spirits and even death itself.

It is one thing to say that this Kingdom was at hand, but it was quite another to say that some of you here will see its coming with power.

As we know, He told them the truth, for after His death and resurrection from the dead, the Kingdom came with power at Pentecost, and that Kingdom is here even now. But!! That Kingdom is not of this world. It is manifested on this earth in the church, which is supposed to be a place of healing, love and grace. Of course, we still get sick and die physically, for we are still in this world. Yet we must also remember that we are not of this world, for we are citizens of a heavenly Kingdom. We must not forget that just as Jesus rose bodily from the grave, so will we, for we have received the gift of eternal life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Finally, we must also keep in mind that the day will come when everything of this world will come to an end.

As it worked out, most of the Jews rejected this whole thing, for they were looking for a different king and a different Kingdom. Amazingly, a great number of Christians today are making the same mistake, looking for an earthly Kingdom that is still to come: There is no earthly Kingdom to come, there is eternity to come.

So many arguments come from this, so many tangled interpretations in which the presupposition is more important than the Scriptures, robbing so many of the awesome harmony of the Scriptures and creating so much confusion and discord. And the saddest thing of all? So many miss the amazing power of what we have within us right now.

When the Kingdom came with power on that Pentecost so long ago, the world we live in opposed it with everything they could muster. The religious authorities twisted and connived to discredit it, the culture opposed it economically and socially, the civil authorities banned it and persecuted it, demons attacked it, and in the background, Satan himself was pulling the strings… yet they were overcome by the power of weakness and meekness, and so the battle continues today. It is so very different from at first, and yet so very much the same, just as Scriptures predicted.

What will be the outcome of this conflict? Victory, glory and eternity with Christ!

Transfiguration

Mark 9:2-13

Parallel Texts: Matthew 17:1-13; Luke 9:28-36

Six days go by, and then Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him up a nearby mountain. When they arrive, the three disciples are treated to an awesome and shocking sight; the transfiguration. Suddenly, Jesus is transformed to a heavenly state, His clothing shines brightly, and He is joined by Moses and Elijah; they are speaking together. The disciples are terrified, and who can blame them?

Peter blurts out that they should build three shrines, but suddenly they are joined by another presence, a presence within a descending cloud, and then a voice speaks:

“This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (v. 7)

Think about that sight, these events so far…

Jesus, Moses and Elijah speaking together: Jesus, the Law and the Prophets speaking together. From the Jewish point of view, life is wrapped up in the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah). Then the voice of God tells them to listen to Jesus! The voice tells them that Jesus is the One He loves. Hold on a minute; what about the Law and the Prophets?

Poof! They are gone!

Jesus would shortly fulfill the Law and the Prophets; their day had come and would shortly be gone, leaving only Jesus.

Jesus asked them to keep this to themselves until He had risen from the dead, and they are confused about this rising from the dead part, because even now they are thinking from an earthly point of view,

And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Mark 9:11-13

There are many theories on this text, and as usual, I will let others speculate on the fine points, while I simply point out the obvious ones.  Why was it said that Elijah would come first? Because he would come first, and he had come first. The people so entirely misunderstood the prophecies concerning Elijah, that they killed him. Now they were with Messiah, and the people so completely misunderstood the prophecies about Jesus, that they would soon kill Him also. Many at the time believed that Elijah would return to restore all things, but they were being a bit too literal, for as we now know, the One who will restore all things is Jesus, who in fact has already done just that, having restored Man to God though the forgiveness of sins and with the gift of eternal life.

Mark 8:1-13

Parallel Texts: Matthew 15:32-16:4

Once again, we are near the Sea of Galilee with Jesus, the disciples and a very large crowd of people. Apparently they have all been there for quite a while, because Jesus feels that the people need to be fed. As He says, some have come from a long distance and need nourishment before they head home.  In this, He shows His compassion for these people who have come to hear His teaching, and yet as the disciples point out, there was simply not enough food for such a large crowd; there’s four thousand people out there!

Have they forgotten that Jesus had no problem with five thousand?

As He did before, Jesus had the disciples gather up their supplies and directed it be distributed to the crowd, and when their provisions were passed, everyone had their fill and they had more leftovers than they had started with. After they had eaten, Jesus sent the people home, and He and the disciples crossed the Sea again. Note that Mark doesn’t record any conversation between them at this point.

Later, Mark doesn’t specify exactly when, Jesus is chatting with some Pharisees.

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.” Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.

Mark 8:11-13

In John’s account of Jesus feeding the five thousand in chapter six, those same people, on the very next day ask Him for a sign. Here, in Mark’s account of His feeding of the four thousand, the Pharisees ask Him for a sign. I’m reminded of a story; you’ve probably heard it too:

A man heard that a great flood was coming, so he went up to the roof of his house. As the waters began to rise, his neighbor comes along in a boat and tells the man to get in, but the man declines saying that he knows God will save him.  A few hours later, with the waters several feet higher, someone else comes along in a boat, but the man gives the same reply. Still later, with the waters creeping up the roofline, a helicopter comes by with a lifeline to pull him aboard, but the man maintains his position that God will save him. Finally, with the floodwaters waist-high and standing at the very highest point of the roof, in desperation the man calls out: “Oh Lord, I have faith that you will save me, when will you deliver me?”

Suddenly, the man hears a loud and booming voice from above the clouds saying unto him, “Man I have sent you two boats and a helicopter already. What do you want from me!?”

After all of the miracles and miraculous signs that Jesus has provided, and after just having fed four thousand people miraculously, the Pharisees ask for a sign… as if one more would make any difference!

Gee whiz, this reminds me of another story; lucky you!

There’s a scene in Herman Wouk’s book War and Remembrance in which a group of men are sitting around a table in occupied Europe during the Second World War. These men have all seen and heard things, enough for them to understand what the Nazis are up to and they have been trying to get word out about the Holocaust, but nobody will listen to them. Why? Why won’t anybody listen or look at the evidence? One of them utters what is possibly the most brilliant line I’ve ever read in modern literature: “They have the will to not know.”

Did you catch that? It’s very subtle… the will “to not know.” It isn’t that they don’t understand, it isn’t just that they don’t want to be bothered, it’s that they want to remain ignorant. Jesus was there because God so loved the world that He was preparing to sacrifice His one and only Son, and Jesus was willing to be that sacrifice; He wanted all men to be saved by it. Thus, we must conclude that if one more sign would save these Pharisees, He would have given them a sign. He knew, however that they wanted to not know who He was, and as a result no amount of miracles would change anything for them because they didn’t want it to.  These Pharisees were not confused or unconvinced; they were working for the other side.

Jesus left them where they stood and got back into the boat.

What do you suppose God is showing us in this passage?

Mark 8:14-21

Parallel Text: Matthew 16:5-12

In this passage, they are out in the boat when Jesus who, apparently out of the blue, tells them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. (Matthew recalls it as “Pharisees and Sadducees”)

The disciples have no idea what He is talking about, and assume He is referring to the fact that they only had one loaf of bread.  Jesus reminds them of the fact that He can make that one loaf into thousands if He wants to and seems incredulous at their lack of understanding. By now, you should see that there is a pattern here: Jesus has an entirely different point of view than everybody else. He isn’t concerned about the merely physical, about the things of this world. The disciples, on the other hand, see things the way everybody else sees them; physical, practical, earthly, here and now.  They don’t understand where Jesus is coming from most of the time, and frankly who can blame them?

Don’t most Christians think the same way the disciples were thinking?

“Of course, Jesus is at the center of my life, yes I am following Him wherever He leads, absolutely I would do anything to help build His Kingdom… but right now I’m too busy.” “Well, I don’t think He means I should have to do that!”

No, they didn’t understand what He was talking about.

Matthew tells us that Jesus was referring to the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees in 16:12.

The disciples might have stopped to think about what yeast represents in Scripture: SIN!

But Mark mentions Herod, was Herod a teacher? In a way he was, just like President Biden is in a sense a teacher. He was their political leader, and held great influence with many people, as does President Biden (or whoever might hold office). We have already seen how the Pharisees and Herod viewed Jesus as a threat to their positions, and the Sadducees would be right there with them… this guy needs to go away!

Think about the conversation Jesus has just had: After feeding the 4,000 by a miracle, the Pharisees wanted a sign. That demand was itself a sign, for it announced in a clear and unambiguous way that they were going to oppose Jesus and the Kingdom everywhere they encountered it.  They would use their influence, along with that of Herod (strange bedfellows indeed) to stop Jesus at all costs. Beware the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod!

It’s time to get a clue boys!

Mark 7:24-37

Parallel Text: Matthew 15:21-37

A quick reading of this text will tell us that Jesus heals someone’s daughter, but quick readings don’t always yield the whole story, for there are those times when we are better off slowing down just a bit; this is one of those times.

This is the first time that Jesus has entirely left the country, as we would say today, for He is in Lebanon. It would seem that He has withdrawn entirely from Galilee with His disciples after more than a year of frantic activity and ever-growing crowds. It is to be a time of rest, and can I say it? A vacation or “retreat” of sorts. Yet He has become famous, and even in this Gentile land, His presence will not be a secret for very long. Mark goes to great lengths here to make it clear that the woman who approaches Jesus for help is a Gentile. He tells us that she is a Syrian of Phoenician extraction, rather more personal information than is really necessary, but he does so because her being a Gentile is the point of the story.

She asks Jesus to help her daughter, for her daughter is possessed by an unclean spirit. Jesus responds to her plea with a strange remark:

 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

Mark 7:27

So, is He telling the woman that He can only help the girl if she’s just eaten? No, I don’t think so. The woman sure had a comeback…

“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Mark 7:28

It was not uncommon in those days for people to have dogs as pets and as workers in the fields. In those days, they didn’t have a special aisle in the grocery stores for all of the various kinds of dog food, and so the dogs ate table scraps. After a meal was finished, they would feed the leftovers to the dogs. During the meals, the dogs would have to wait, but if crumbs fell from the table, the dogs would snatch them up. Jesus and the woman were using a metaphor.

Jesus is telling the woman that He has come to preach the Kingdom to the Jews (children) and the Gentiles would receive the message after the Jews have had the first opportunity for salvation, for this is what God had promised. The woman, being a Gentile, would have to wait. This was one sharp lady who fully comprehended what Jesus was telling her, and expanded His metaphor to the dogs snapping up crumbs that fall from the table, as she entreats Him to help her child.

Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

Mark 7:29

This Gentile woman demonstrated more faith and understanding than the religious leaders of the Jews ever did! As a result of her faith, she was able to snatch up a “crumb” from the table, and the demon was gone from her child… and the child wasn’t even there.

An amazing story: Jesus demonstrated another aspect of the Kingdom He was preaching: The Good News would be preached first to the Jews and after a time, it would be taken with power and authority to the Gentiles, for all Nations would be blessed by the seed of Abraham, as God had promised so long before.

This also marks the beginning of a new phase in Jesus’ ministry, for from here forward Jesus will be highlighting for the disciples, the marked contrast between the traditions of Jews as taught by the religious leaders, and the reality of the Kingdom of heaven in their midst. He did so in this scene by 1) talking with a Gentile woman (which a Pharisee would never do) and 2) by responding to her faith and healing her child, which a Pharisee would also never do. These contrasts will continue as Jesus’ foreign tour moves on to its next stop…

After some days in the region of Tyre, Jesus and the disciples moved on in the direction of Sidon, crossing into modern-day Syria, making their way finally to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee where they were confronted by large crowds; many were healed. Mark tells the story of the healing of one man in particular, a man who was both deaf and nearly unable to speak.

Jesus took the man aside, away from the commotion, and began His work. In so many cases, just touching Jesus’ garment brought about healing, in others, Jesus spoke and the job was complete, but in this case, the recipient of the healing was deaf, so Jesus made plain to the man what He was doing in other ways. First Jesus put His fingers in the man’s ears, picture in your mind what this would look like. Then Jesus spit! Apparently, this was a sign for the man to stick out his tongue, because Jesus was able to touch it. If you have the picture in your mind, Jesus has a finger from each hand in the guy’s ears, and probably one or both thumbs on his tongue.

At this point, Jesus looks to heaven, sighs deeply and says in Aramaic, “Be opened” and the man can hear and speak; he is healed.

Let he who has an ear hear, let him who has a tongue praise God.

It would be a matter of conjecture for me to explain why Jesus sighed deeply or why He didn’t just say “So ordered” when He was asked to heal this man, for the text itself does not say.  It could be that Jesus thought of all of those who were deaf and mute who would not be healed that day. It might be that He took the effort to use His hands so that the man would be aware of exactly what was going on so that he would know that Jesus had done this… maybe.

Then Jesus once again goes the next step and asks the man not to tell anybody what happened. Of course, that people would see this man hearing and talking would make the question of what had happened inevitable, and it would be pretty much impossible for him not to say.  Why did Jesus make this request?

Earlier in Mark, we were told that He wanted to keep the numbers in the crowd under control, but it was a little late for that now.  The text doesn’t tell us, so I don’t know. Yet, I can offer an observation: Jesus had become a rock star at that point, but He wasn’t like the rock stars we might think of. Jesus was our role model, or better put, Jesus IS our role model!  He was not healing and restoring people to wholeness to get His picture in the papers, He was fulfilling God’s will on earth.

What are we supposed to be doing? Aren’t we supposed to be leading people to Jesus so they might be made whole again? Are we supposed to be self-promoting in the process, or are we called upon to be humble as He was humble?

If nothing else, I should think it’s something to ponder.

Mark 7:1-23

Parallel Texts: Matthew 15:1-20; John 7:1ff.

Mark’s account changes it’s focus at this point, as does Matthew’s and Luke’s, for from this point forward up to Jesus’ final arrival in Jerusalem, Jesus focuses on training His disciples. Here, He begins to demonstrate the differences between the Kingdom and the traditional religious teachings of His day. Our first glimpse of this change of focus begins when Jesus and the disciples return from their sojourn to the other side of the Lake.

This is a great story… we could spend a week going over it piece by piece. A group of Pharisees have come up from Jerusalem and in our first glimpse of them they are looking for a fight. They approach Jesus complaining that His disciples are eating before they have gone through the proper hand washing ceremony… of all things. Jesus is having none of that:

He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

Mark 7:6-8

It didn’t take Jesus very long to come to the point; He calls them hypocrites in the first sentence. The point is that they, who are such great law-keepers, just ask them and they’ll tell you, are pushing customs and traditions that aren’t in the Law. First, He quotes Isaiah 29:13 to set up His counter-charge, and then goes right to the point:

And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.  Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Mark 7:9-13

Here He quotes the commandment, and then reminds the nice Pharisees of their tradition. A man could set aside part of his property as a gift to God (Corban) and be relieved of his obligations to his elderly parents… and the Pharisees are perfectly fine with that, which of course defeats the purpose of the commandment. And here they were, trying to use one of these idiotic traditions to condemn His disciples! Well, now… we’re making friends today aren’t we?

Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” 

Mark 7:15

It didn’t make any difference whether His disciples did the traditional hand washing before eating their meal; what good is a ritual? The food would not make them unclean in any way, they would swallow it and nature would take its course. It’s what comes out of a person that makes them unclean, for what comes out of us reveals the condition of our hearts. If a man sees a beautiful woman, the sight of her does not make him a sex-crazed maniac… unless a sex-crazed manic was already inside of him.  If a person performs all of the right rituals and ceremonies and goes through all of the perfect motions on Sunday morning… so what?  Those will not cause anyone to love God and love their neighbor unless the love of God was already within their hearts.

Oh, sorry, did I make this about us instead of about those dastardly Pharisees?

Dear reader, all too often, we are the Pharisees!

So let’s see, what do we have here? Not only was Jesus some kind of a revolutionary preaching this new kingdom of His, not only was He healing the sick and lame, making the blind see, chasing out demons, forgiving sins and even raising the dead, and not only did He give out free food to His fans, now He was attacking the status quo by which the elites kept everyone in line:

Here’s another report back to Jerusalem that I wish we could read together!

Yep, those Pharisees were looking for a fight, and Jesus didn’t disappoint them.