John 7:47

The Pharisees respond with contempt. They are the guardians of true doctrine, or so they believe. The officers are not trained in the law; they would naturally be susceptible to being impressed by mere eloquence. 'Are ye also deceived?' The question carries the weight of their assumption: if you have been moved by this man, you have fallen into the snare that traps many. The Pharisees see themselves as immune to such deception. They have studied the law; they know what true doctrine is; they would never be moved by the kind of appeal Jesus makes. Their confidence in their own understanding is their blindness. They cannot imagine that they themselves might be the ones who are deceived. The officers, in their simple perception, have come closer to the truth than the Pharisees with all their learning.

We are prone to the same trap. We trust our own understanding, our own learning, our own position and status. We assume that those with less education, less authority, less standing than ourselves are more easily deceived. Yet Jesus came not to the wise and learned as his primary audience but to the humble and the poor. We are invited to set aside our certainty and listen, as the officers did, with the openness of those who know we may not have all the answers.