And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
Mark 3:6 records the response to Jesus healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, when the Pharisees plotted with the Herodians how to destroy and kill him. The Pharisees followed Jesus looking for a reason to accuse him, enraged by his good work yet concealing their hatred while watching for a statement they could use against him. While he was saving lives and bringing happiness through healing they harbored bitter hatred and murderous intent aimed at condemning him to death.
The Pharisees joined with the Herodians to take counsel and plan how to destroy, kill, and get rid of Jesus. Although the Pharisees hated the Herodians, they allied with their enemies by contemptible means, revealing their malice. They were determined to continue because his work was drawing people to believe in him and threatened their power.
To enlist the Herodians and turn political authorities against him, the Pharisees portrayed Jesus as a rival king and a threat to their rule and to Roman authority. They treated his Sabbath miracles and works of mercy that brought relief to the afflicted as breaking the Sabbath, falsely using them as grounds and pretext to accuse and condemn him as a Sabbath-breaker. Their later need to hire false witnesses showed they could not sustain that charge.
Their hostility arose from hatred of his teaching and life, which exposed their hypocrisy, and they sought to silence him and turn the people against him, though those efforts had so far failed. The people who saw his works and heard his teaching recognized that he was neither a Sabbath-breaker nor a blasphemer. Their useless rites and restrictions dishonored the Sabbath, while Jesus' act of mercy honored the day and upheld the fourth commandment as God gave it. Their plotting to kill on the Sabbath while he saved lives exposed the evil of condemning his merciful healing as unlawful.
Their growing malice drove Jesus and his disciples to withdraw to another and more favorable field of labor. The healing became widely known, and by the Sea of Galilee he continued to teach, heal the sick, and cast out demons.
Mark 3:6 records the response to Jesus healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, when the Pharisees plotted with the Herodians how to destroy and kill him. The Pharisees followed Jesus looking for a reason to accuse him, enraged by his good work yet concealing their hatred while watching for a statement they could use against him. While he was saving lives and bringing happiness through healing they harbored bitter hatred and murderous intent aimed at condemning him to death.
The Pharisees joined with the Herodians to take counsel and plan how to destroy, kill, and get rid of Jesus. Although the Pharisees hated the Herodians, they allied with their enemies by contemptible means, revealing their malice. They were determined to continue because his work was drawing people to believe in him and threatened their power.
To enlist the Herodians and turn political authorities against him, the Pharisees portrayed Jesus as a rival king and a threat to their rule and to Roman authority. They treated his Sabbath miracles and works of mercy that brought relief to the afflicted as breaking the Sabbath, falsely using them as grounds and pretext to accuse and condemn him as a Sabbath-breaker. Their later need to hire false witnesses showed they could not sustain that charge.
Their hostility arose from hatred of his teaching and life, which exposed their hypocrisy, and they sought to silence him and turn the people against him, though those efforts had so far failed. The people who saw his works and heard his teaching recognized that he was neither a Sabbath-breaker nor a blasphemer. Their useless rites and restrictions dishonored the Sabbath, while Jesus' act of mercy honored the day and upheld the fourth commandment as God gave it. Their plotting to kill on the Sabbath while he saved lives exposed the evil of condemning his merciful healing as unlawful.
Their growing malice drove Jesus and his disciples to withdraw to another and more favorable field of labor. The healing became widely known, and by the Sea of Galilee he continued to teach, heal the sick, and cast out demons.