Every trial has a prosecutor and a defendant. The Jewish leaders thought that as political and religious authorities they could act as both prosecutor and judge. They would accuse Jesus, find him guilty and then put Him to death; as simple as 1,2,3, over and done. They did not recognize that their own personal weaknesses would alter the outcome. While they were strong and powerful in their positions of authority, they were spiritually weak. Their weakness was rooted in their selfishness, in their concern for public opinion and desire for adulation. They wanted the Jewish people to both fear and admire them. Achieving this two-fold goal is not easy; it required a wickedness that allowed them to go to the extremes of hypocrisy.

Jesus did not meekly submit to their will, instead He boldly spoke the truth. Jesus called out their hypocrisy, and their misuse of the law. The crowd was then impressed by Jesus’ words, just as with His miraculous acts of healing.

The leaders sought the approval of the crowd by calling John the Baptist a prophet, but once John pointed to Jesus, that truth became inconvenient, and they rejected Him. They claimed to be experts in the law, and depended upon the law to give them eternal life. The crowd listening to Jesus learned that the law was imperfect. It revealed unrighteousness, but by itself, it could not create righteousness. For the first time, through Jesus, a right relationship with God was possible.

The leaders did not love God, and did not use the law to point to God but to themselves as the enforcers and arbitrators of the law. In their self-righteousness they used the law to justify their own wickedness and keep the Jewish people under their control. They used God’s law to justify killing God’s Son.

To the righteous, the law is good, but the unrighteous make the law into a tool for evil. Faith in Jesus fulfills the imperfect law by placing the Holy Spirit and His law of love in our hearts.