But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. The healing that should have produced thanksgiving and affirmation produces instead the first explicit murder conspiracy in Matthew's Gospel. The Pharisees who could not answer the legal argument and could not deny the healing go out and take counsel together about how to destroy Jesus. The conspire-to-destroy response to the evidence of mercy communicates the depth of the opposition: the miracle did not soften them.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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