John 7:40-53 (Saturday's gospel)
40 Some in the crowd who heard these words said, "This is truly the Prophet."
41 Others said, "This is the Messiah." But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he?
42 Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"
43 So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
44 Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"
46 The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this one."
47 So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?
48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
49 But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."
50 Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
51 "Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?"
52 They answered and said to him, "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."
53 Then each went to his own house,
This week we've been following along in the series of conflicts between Christ and the Pharisees, which lays out the picture of why the Jewish leaders were so angry with Christ. This conflict occurs in detail over several chapters.
We see Christ's popularity growing among the people. Some think he is the Prophet promised by Moses in Detueronomy, others say the Messiah. He speaks with such authority that guards dispatched to arrest Him come home empty handed, because they'd never heard anyone like Him.
See the disdain of the Pharisees for anyone who believes in Him. People who believe Christ are lowly, uneducated, and narrow minded. When one of their own (Nicodemus) rises to Christ's defense, he is quickly shouted down.
We see this exact behavior in the world today. Christians are thought of as being unenlightened, un-intellectual, and weak. In some respects, not much has changed.
