On This Day: The Quest to Destroy Jesus

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3:1-6)

   It really impacted me today that the religious elite were narcissistic hypocrites.

   A narcissist is someone who cannot accept a healthy shame message. You can’t tell them they are doing anything wrong, even in the nicest and kindest of ways, because they will need to destroy you before you make them look bad.

   A hypocrite is someone who acts one way while being another. They create the roles by which they want to be known, and detest anyone who exposes the duplicity of their lives.

   A narcissistic hypocrite is someone who will not accept any criticism of their beliefs or behaviors because they cannot lose the perception that they are the person they pretend to be. They will destroy anyone who threatens their image.

   The Pharisees were the leaders of the synagogues. They had fabricated an image of what good religious people should look like, and had not imagined anyone taking that from them until… well… Jesus came along!

   In today’s account from Mark 3, these narcissistic hypocrites are blind to the glory of Jesus revealing himself to everyone as Messiah, and could only see how he was breaking their rules, rules they had used to support their roles. And we are called to take notice of the Pharisees’ need to find fault with Jesus so they could destroy him.  

   The first application is an invitation to use this scripture as a mirror. When you see how determined the religious elite were to destroy Jesus, do you see yourself in the scene? Does your mind work to destroy any evidence that Jesus Christ is our Creator, the only Savior of the world, and the King of kings and Lord of lords? Do you argue against Jesus to try to keep others from following him and making you look like you’re not? There are lots of ways we can be just like those narcissistic hypocrites as we seek to “steal, kill, and destroy” people’s faith in the Savior.

   As our second application, the hidden lesson in this is that if this is the way narcissistic hypocrites treated Jesus then, how could we expect anything different for ourselves if we are seeking to make him known to everyone in our lives? And knowing this, let us put on the whole armor of God, take our stand against the devil’s schemes, and proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the people living in darkness. They need people who aren't afraid of narcissistic hypocrites!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)