Have a read of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, verses 15 – 46 in this light:

Jesus: 5
Pharisees & Sadducees: 0

Those Pharisees and Sadducees, right, do they genuinely have no idea Who they’re messing with? Would that explain their determination to trip Him up?

Or do they instinctively suspect Who He is, but simply cannot and/or will not accept it? Instead, they keep at it, desperate to prove Him wrong.

Am I, by any chance, also guilty of such absurd thinking?
“God, You don’t understand anything about money matters.”
“God, You have no idea about human relationships.”
“God, You cannot grasp the concept of eternity.”
“In fact, God, Your theology is way off!”

Why do I do this? Because I’m feeling out of my depth and am thrashing around, trying to have some sense of control and significance?
Or simply because I have such a long way still to go, figuring out even a glimmer of Who God truly is, or what He’s actually like?

In their blind determination to embarrass Jesus, those religious leader chaps end up embarrassing themselves. Of course.
In fact, that’s what eventually shuts them up, at least in their public attempts at tricking Him: Pride – they don’t want to risk losing face yet again.

However, in their hearts their hostility is far from over: they are plotting nothing less than His complete destruction.

Public, manipulative trickery or secret, murderous intentions, God knows what humankind is capable of, and continues on His way, with a doggedness of His own, to save us from ourselves.