arnestly seek to
do the will of the Father should know of himself whether Jesus spoke
truth or error.[840] The Master proceeded to show that a man who speaks
on his own authority alone seeks to aggrandize himself. Jesus did not
so; He honored His Teacher, His Father, His God, not Himself; and
therefore was He free from the taint of selfish pride or
unrighteousness. Moses had given them the law, and yet, as Jesus
affirmed, none of them kept the law.

Then, with startling abruptness, He challenged them with the question,
"Why go ye about to kill me?" On many occasions had they held dark
counsel with one another as to how they could get Him into their power
and put Him to death; but they thought that the murderous secret was
hidden within their own circle. The people had heard the seducing
assertions of the ruling classes, that Jesus was possessed by a demon,
and that He wrought wonders through the power of Beelzebub; and in the
spirit of this blasphemous slander, they cried out: "Thou hast a devil:
who goeth about to kill thee?"

Jesus knew that the two specifications of alleged guilt on which the
rulers were striving most assiduously to convict Him in the popular
mind, and so turn the people against Him, were those of Sabbath-breaking
and blasphemy. On an earlier visit to Jerusalem He had healed an
afflicted man on the Sabbath, and had utterly disconcerted the
hypercritical accusers who even then had sought to compass His
death.[841] To this act of mercy and power Jesus now referred, saying:
"I have done one work, and ye all marvel." Seemingly they were still of
unsettled mind, in doubt as to accepting Him because of the miracle or
denouncing Him because He had done it on the Sabbath. Then He showed the
inconsistency of charging Him with Sabbath-desecration for such a
merciful deed, when the law of Moses expressly allowed acts of mercy,
and even required that the mandatory rite of circumcision should not be
deferred because of the Sabbath. "Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment" said He.

The masses were still divided in their estimate of Jesus, and were
moreover puzzled over the indecision of the rulers. Some of the
Jerusalem Jews knew of the plan to arrest Him, and if possible to bring
Him to death, and the people queried why nothing was done when He was
there teaching publicly within reach of the officials. They wondered
whether the rulers had not at last come to believe that Jesus was