Page 495 - Bible History

The Phari­ 's ha d
II. THE PASSION AND DEATH OF CHRIST
1. THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST PLOT AGAINST HIM
Our divine Savior spent the last six months of His public life in and about Jerusalem. Since the day when by His almighty power He called Lazarus from the grave, the chief priests and the Pharisees had been watching His every movement in the hope that He would do or say something for which they could have Him condemned to death. It is easy to understand why they would hate our blessed Savior. Again and again He had spoken against them in public and said that their piety was only a mask to cover up the sin­ fulness of their hearts. Because Jesus had criticized the Pharisees, the people were beginning to see them as they really were and to know that they were hypo­ crites. As a consequence, the chief priests and the Pharisees were beginning to lose their in uence with the nation and they were afraid the people would turn against them.
By this time the faith of some of the people, too, had begun to weaken. They had expected that the Messias would be a warlike leader who would free them from the Roman power. They could not bring themselves to accept a ]\fessias Whose Kingdom was not of this world. For three years they had been waiting for the moment when Jesus would claim the throne of David and declare a war of independence against the foreign
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Di loyalty al ople