The Pharisees saw Jesus’ disgraceful BEHAVIOR (Jesus Had to be Cancelled – His Behavior) as an attack on the bastion of Jewish Culture. He defiantly broke THE LAW. So, he had to be cancelled!

Even more damaging was his blasphemous speech! He continually released a barrage of inflammatory words on the Guardians. One might even call it “hate speech.”

• At his home town synagogue Jesus read the prophecy of Isaiah about the coming Messiah. Then he said: “Today, these Scriptures came true in front of you.” The indignant crowd dragged Jesus to the edge of a cliff to throw him over. (Luke 4:15-29)

• Challenged by the Jewish authorities about his words Jesus called them the offspring of the Devil. (John 8:44)

• To a paraplegic Jesus said, “My friend, your sins are forgiven!” The religious scholars gathered from Galilee and Judea immediately reacted: “Who does this man think he is to speak such blasphemy? Only God can forgive sins! Does he think he is God?” (Luke 5:16-26)

• He said the Pharisees were rotten to the core like venomous snakes. (Matthew 12:34)

• On another occassion Jesus called the religious leaders tombs painted over with white paint—tombs that look shining and beautiful on the outside but filled with rotting corpses on the inside. (Matthew 23:27)

• Jesus said he was one with the Father. That didn’t set too well with the upper echelon. When they heard this, the Jewish leaders were so enraged that they picked up rocks to stone him to death. (John 10:31)

• Jesus also confronted the leaders with parables that pictorially described who they were. When the leading priests and the Pharisees realized that the parable was referring to them, they were outraged and wanted to arrest him at once. (Matthew 21:45-46.)

I’m not making any of this up on my own. The Father who sent me gave me orders, told me WHAT to say and HOW to say it. (John 12:50)

JESUS’ VITRIOLIC SPEECH CHALLENGED THE CHARACTER AND STATUS OF THE GUARDIANS. HE COULD NOT BE TOLERATED! HE HAD TO BE CANCELLED!