John 7:45-49 45Therefore, the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and those people said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47Therefore, the Pharisees answered them, “Have you yourselves not also been deceived? 48Have not any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”
The chief priests and the Pharisees had sent the police to arrest Jesus (verse 32). John records this as an official act of the Jewish leaders. He was a nuisance and growing problem, so they had become more aggressive in their plans. They must have had some plan to do away with Jesus, but according to Roman law and practice, their power to execute someone was limited. Somehow, they would need to involve the Romans or find some quiet way to get rid of him. They thought they had a clear plan all worked out and that it would be easy to arrest him and put him on trial. The big problem was that they could not get rid of the truth. Truth speaks for itself and will win in the end.
The officers who went to arrest Jesus came back empty-handed, which made the Jewish leaders angry. They had sent the police on a simple mission. The problem was that they also listened to what Jesus said. The officers were likely faithful Levites who took their positions seriously and had some fear of God in them. When they heard Jesus speak, they saw power, truth, and authority in his words. The sincerity of their response in verse 46 is impossible to know. They may not have fully realized the truth of their simple witness. The reader, however, is more than a bystander but is has heard the claims of Jesus and is invited to confirm the words the officers said to their leaders.
The legalistic Pharisees voice their bitter complaint in verse 47. The anger and condescension come through in the following three verses. They saw Jesus as a deceiver who fooled people with his crafty and eloquent words. The pride and arrogance of the Pharisees are revealed next with their boast that they had not been deceived by believing in Jesus. Verse 48 reveals the big problem of the antagonistic Jews: they did not believe in Jesus. With all the evidence before them, they refused to accept what Jesus said. He did not fit their paradigm of righteousness. They knew the law, but the people did not. The religious stratification of first-century Jewish culture comes through in verse 49 with the religious elite represented by the Pharisees and the crowd who were viewed as ignorant and lawless. The Pharisees judged the people as accursed (eparatoi), a strong word that occurs only here and Galatians 3:10, 13, which quote from the Torah. The Pharisees were acting as judges and jury of not only Jesus but all who were listening to him, particularly the officers sent to arrest him.
The evidence was before the crowds, officers, and Jewish leaders. The same evidence is before the readers of John’s Gospel, including people today. The primary question is again assumed even in the complaint of the Pharisees: will we believe in Jesus? The Pharisees had it backward. They believed those who believed in Jesus were accursed. However, the opposite is true: those who do not believe are accursed and will face God’s judgment.
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