The Pharisees therefore answered them, Are ye also deceived?
The men sent to arrest Jesus came back without Him, saying that no one had ever spoken like this man. Their employers never ask what He said — they answer with a question meant to shame the men who brought the report.
The officers gave an honest report. The reply shows conscience at work in the servants, and hardness in the masters.
Here conscience answered to the words of the Lord. In front of their masters, the officers confessed without meaning to how powerfully He spoke. He did not speak as the scribes did. But the Pharisees are unbreakably hard. They throw the officers' weakness back at them. They challenge them to name any of the rulers or Pharisees who believed. And they show their contempt for the mass of their countrymen.
The charge treats being moved by Jesus as a failure of judgment. Sensible people, they assume, cannot be fooled.
Frustrated in their purpose, the Pharisees now speak with scorn of the people. An ignorant lot, who did not know the law — who would value their opinion? Then they asked in triumph, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?" People of sense and reputation would never be fooled by such a One. The crowd might be led away by His speeches, but not them. Why should their officers be affected by His words?
The leaders' comeback is a head-count, not an argument. But rank and learning did not help these men hear God.
The common people heard Him gladly, but the wise and the mighty turned away their ears. Then came the question, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?" That question shows clearly and forcefully how traditional orthodoxy blinds people. It leaves a mind that is only religious unfit to receive vital truth.
The word "also" lumps the officers in with the crowd. Both, the leaders assume, have been fooled — and the curse they pronounce misuses the law they claim to defend.
They fear the officers have been deceived, just as they consider the people to be. They pronounce the people as under a curse because they did not know the law. But the law had not cursed those who did not know it: it cursed those who did not keep it.
The taunt about rulers and Pharisees was rhetorical. It did not survive the meeting.
They had an immense conceit of themselves. They were sure their own rejection of Jesus was beyond dispute. They thought it so final that everybody ought to accept it. If the crowd, or any of them, did not, it only showed them to be ignorant and accursed. So these false shepherds simply cursed the sheep and left it at that. Yet their own ignorance began to show. Their triumphant question was, had any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? Nicodemus spoiled its effect, for he was both a Pharisee and a ruler.
The leaders and the crowd differ in style, not in substance.
The officers return under the influence of His words: "No one ever spoke like this man!" The Pharisees and rulers did not hesitate. They sought to put Him to death. They scatter, disgusted. This is the picture of the human heart facing the truth. The religious leaders have made up their minds. The masses are confused and unsure. They waver between prejudice and the power of the word of God. Faith was in neither the one nor the other.
- Report. Sent to arrest Jesus, the officers came back with a confession instead of a prisoner. His words did what force could not.
- Retort. The leaders never examined the report. They threw the officers' weakness back at them. To be moved by Christ, in their eyes, only proved you had been fooled.
- Reputation. Their case rested on a head-count of rulers and Pharisees. Traditional orthodoxy had blinded them, leaving a mind that is only religious unable to receive vital truth.
- Contempt. The appeal to rank failed, so they cursed the crowd for not knowing the law. But the law cursed those who broke it, not those who did not know it.
- Refutation. Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a ruler, was sitting right there. Their boast collapsed before the meeting ended. Scorn above, confusion below: faith was in neither group.
Has any one of the rulers believed on him, or of the Pharisees?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But this crowd, which does not know the law, are accursed.
The Pharisees demand to know whether any ruler or Pharisee has believed in Jesus. Their next words write off the crowd as ignorant and accursed — a verdict that exposes the men who spoke it.
The officers had just admitted the power with which Jesus spoke. Their masters answer them with scorn, not with an argument. The scorn falls on their own countrymen.
There were darker traits in the religious leaders than in the crowd... In the officers, conscience answered to the words of the Lord — at least enough to draw from them, before their masters, an unwilling confession of the power with which He spoke. But the Pharisees, with unbreakable hardness, throw the officers' weakness back at them. They challenge them to name any of the rulers or Pharisees who believed, and they let their contempt for the mass of their own countrymen show. Boasting in law, they were at that very moment dishonouring God by breaking the law, and by far worse.
The leaders make knowledge of the law their test. So what did that word cover for a Jew?
A brief look at the Gospels would have shown what the single word "law" meant. The Jews understood it to mean the first five books, and not just the Ten Commandments.
Their logic runs backwards. They have rejected Jesus, so anyone who has not must be beneath notice.
They had no shortage of conceit. They were sure that their own rejection of Jesus was beyond dispute, and so final that everybody ought to accept it. If the crowd, or any of them, did not, it only showed them to be ignorant and accursed. So these false shepherds just cursed the sheep, and left it at that. Yet their own ignorance began to show. They asked in triumph whether any of the rulers or Pharisees had believed in Him. Nicodemus spoiled the effect of that question, for he was both a Pharisee and a ruler.
Read on to the end of the chapter, and the verdict turns around.
The Pharisees were a group among the Jews who were most zealous for the law. They were the teachers of the law to the people. Yet in the last verses of chapter 7 this group, who did not know the Lord, are themselves shown to be accursed. The Pharisees thought they were the best part of the people. On the outside they were, as their judgment of their fellow Israelites showed. Yet these very people, whom the Lord did not know, were themselves accursed.
One man in the room answers them on their own ground. He does not preach. He asks whether their own law condemns a man before it hears him. Their complaint about the crowd's ignorance falls apart.
Notice, too, how their plans are frustrated. "But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." But what stops them? "Does our law judge any man before it hears him?" And what is this timidity of Nicodemus? He shelters himself under the plea of their law. That takes their complaint about the people's ignorance of the law out of their mouth. And it throws the breaking of the law on them, if they carry out their purpose. Oh, if only we had faith to trust God! But if we are not willing to suffer in the flesh, we never shall.
Their problem was not a lack of learning. It was what grace did to their standing.
Their pride of heart and mind could not stand the grace that put them in the same class as the people who did not know the law.
The distance the leaders put between themselves and the crowd did not last. At the cross the two joined forces.
All classes fell into line that day, so that each could play its own part in that most sinful of sins. Jews and Gentiles agreed for once. Rival leaders buried their jealousies. Proud religious men joined hands with the crowd they treated at another moment with their deepest contempt (John 7:48-49).
- Contempt — The officers came back moved by Christ's words. Their masters answered with scorn for ordinary people, not with an argument.
- Boast — They boasted in the law, the first five books. At that very moment they were breaking it and dishonouring God.
- Curse — They were sure their rejection of Jesus settled the matter, so these false shepherds cursed the sheep and left it there.
- Rebound — The teachers of the law did not know the Lord, and the curse they spoke rests on them.
- Grace — Their pride could not bear a grace that ranked them with the people they despised. One question from Nicodemus, asked on their own legal ground, undid their boast.