7-PUBLIC CONFRONTATIONS-The Jewish Authorities caused a series of confrontations. They questioned Jesus seeking a way to discredit Him in front of the crowds, even raised suspicion about him to those in Rome, but Jesus taught freely of parables and warned the people against the knowledge of the Pharisees. Jesus likened them to tenants whose Landlord had sent messengers to collect the fruit due at harvest time, but was without success, so He sent His Only Son, who they killed. The Chief Priests and Pharisees became furious as they realized Jesus had talked about them and they became desperate and were more determined to arrest Him, fulfilling prophecy of Psalm 118:22,23, but were too afraid because of the crowd going against them. Wickedly they plotted to kill Jesus.

Another parable Jesus told describes a banquet prepared by a King for His Son; when the invited guests refused to go, strangers came and enjoyed the feast instead of the original requested guests. This sequential story deals with the responsibility of the individual person. The fulfilment of Psalm 118:22,23 became evident. The Stone that was rejected was Christ, the most important stone in the building, the Keystone. Jesus called Himself The Capstone. This most prominent Stone was despicable according to the worldly powers. Although He was rejected, He became and is now the Chief cornerstone, the Head of The Church. Though mainly discarded by Jewish Official, Jesus’ rejection elevated Him.
Publicly, in The Temple, Jesus continued to warn against the teaching of the Pharisees, Elders and Scribes, and all those who taught the Laws of God, for their religious teachings hid pride and greed. Jesus put a question from the scriptures, Psalm 110:1, concerning Himself, The Messiah, to those authorities, and they could not answer. If they had answered the question, they would have had to admit that Jesus was God's Son, The Expected Messiah as well as being a descendant of King David. The Psalm 110:1 that King David wrote, was quoted by Jesus and He used them in reference to Himself.
The Messiah was superior to King David as this Psalm explains and seated and enthroned at God's Right Hand, having all authority over All, including His enemies under His feet. A royal footstool always accompanied a throne. Jesus used this verse as a testimonial to Himself, not only to point out that King David proclaims that The Messiah is His Lord, far greater than David but in Heaven in the presence God, The Father. The Right hand is a position of authority, strength and honour. To admit that issue, would be the acknowledgment of Christ being identical to God, would have disrupted their positions politically with their Roman rulers and those who sought after titles and positions that honoured themselves, which was much more important to cling on to than give it all away for The Messiah.

Jesus also taught His closest disciples privately. He pointed out a poor widow to them who had stopped to put her last two coins in The Temple Treasury. Jesus told His supporters that her gift from poverty meant more than all the gold that had been given by those who were richer and could afford to part with their gold.
The Jewish Leaders, Herodians and the Pharisees, tried to have Jesus arrested on a political charge. Such hypocrisy did not deceive Him. They produced a Roman coin and asked Jesus should they pay the tax of the Roman Civil Rule, but these leaders showed that they themselves had accepted the Imperial Rule. Jesus simply replied that the coin belonged to Caesar, therefore it was his. Their attempt failed.
The Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection of the body being united with the spirit for eternity at a Resurrection Day, thought they could trap Jesus on a scriptural spiritual question. They attempted to make a spiritual truth a mockery by twisting the scriptures, expecting the people would laugh at the concept of resurrection. The Jewish groups of Sadducees and Pharisees would argue over this issue of resurrection constantly. The Sadducees purposely proposed questions to Jesus, believing there was not a scripture in the Old Testament from which the Jewish teachers and Jesus taught, to prove of life after death. The Pharisees never could give them an answer to this point therefore the Sadducees felt superior in their knowledge.  However Jesus quickly told them of this verse from the Pentateuch (which is the first five books scribed by Moses) and surprised them by His answer from what Moses had written. Jesus gave a far deeper proof of Life after death and demonstrated of their ignorance of Scripture. God spoke to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:6-5 and described Himself as The God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, as being in present tense, centuries after their death, as if all three were still in existence, thus proving Life after death is a reality and in doing so convinced many of the Pharisees. The three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still in existence, by the nature of God.

Managed by Stefan Kreslin, Last Updated March 2011