There are four different groups that want to take on Jesus in the Gospels: the Chief priests and elders (these guys were only in the temple, and Matthew writes about them just before our gospel for this weekend, and also a few parables in between them), the Pharisees, and the Herodians (these two groups were not natural allies, but they banded together in our gospel today), and the Sadducees (this group is in the next story in Matthew’s gospel).
All four of these groups point us to two more of the capital sins: pride and envy. The chief priests and elders believed that they were entitled to receive certain amounts of respect and a deference to their status. They questioned Jesus’ authority to say and do the things he was saying and doing. And because he was not “one of them”, they were against what he was saying.
In the upcoming chapters, Matthew pins together a number of encounters between Jesus and Sadducees, Jesus and Pharisees, Jesus and scribes, Jesus and lawyers… basically, the leaders of the nation of Israel. Almost all of them are an attempt to catch Jesus in some sort of a… trap so they can accuse him of …read more
Source:: Fr. Frank Jindra’s Homily Podcasts
