The Authority of the Son

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father^(A) is always at his work^(B) to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him;^(C) not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.^(D)

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to stone him,^(A) but Jesus hid himself,^(B) slipping away from the temple grounds.

²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders,^(A) who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out^(B) of the synagogue.^(C)