Wicked rulers view religious people as useful idiots. Too often they are right, and believers are easily deceived and misled. True righteousness requires us to be as wise as serpents, but as meek as lambs.

Jesus knew the hypocrisy of the rulers who were seeking to put Him to death. He wanted the people who were gathered around listening to know the truth for themselves. He presented Himself to the people as truth, but now He presented to them the deceitfulness of their religious leaders.

The same leaders who were condemning Jesus had gone out into the desert to bask and share in the glory of John the Baptist. They did not stand in John the Baptist’s light because they wanted to be enlightened. They stood and enjoyed the light because they wanted the people to see them and think highly of them, just as they thought highly of John the Baptist. If John’s call to repentance caused his followers to become more committed Jews, it would be easier for the unrighteous leaders to control them.

The leaders were not concerned about righteousness for themselves; their main concern was for power and money. Their power was given to them by the Romans, and if they did not maintain peace in the land they governed, the Roman leaders would replace them. They believed, and rightly so, that people who are living in right relationship with God and their fellow man are less likely to revolt. Righteous people generously support the work of the temple. From their corrupt viewpoint, the work of John the Baptist was a good thing.

However, when John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the coming Messiah, the religious leaders were threatened. A Messiah would replace them as leader of the people. The testimony of John the Baptist was true, but the corrupt leaders rejected that testimony just as they rejected Jesus who was truth.

Who would the crowd believe, their deceitful leaders or Jesus? Their hope of righteousness, like ours, depends upon that choice.