Main news for 9 June 2025

The Pharisees had a clear idea of who the Messiah was and what signs should accompany Him. And then Jesus appears, working miracles and speaking as no one before Him had spoken. Many, seeing this, accept Him, if not as the Christ, then at least as a prophet. Even the Temple officers begin to doubt that His preaching can be harmful to Israel.

But for the Pharisees there is a law into which this simple man from Galilee, despised by the Jews, does not fit. The law says plainly that the Messiah is to be expected from the line of David, and therefore they do not even want to "hear Him and find out what He is doing." Was that the very step they lacked in order to see clearly? Then the truth known only to those close to Jesus would have been opened to them: that He was born in Bethlehem, that He is of the line of David. Sometimes, in order to understand God, we simply need to hear Him out to the end, and not judge by relying on our legalistic ideas about His providence.