Jerusalem…the town where no good deed goes unpunished:

Then the blind and the crippled came into the temple courts, and Jesus healed them all. And the children circled around him shouting out, “Blessings and praises to the Son of David!” But when the chief priests and religious scholars heard the children shouting and saw all the wonderful miracles of healing, they were furious. (Matthew 21.14, 15, TPT)

Maybe this is too obvious, but there’s something wrong with religious people who get “furious” when they see “all the wonderful miracles of healing.” Jesus confronts these killjoys with the parables of The Two Sons and the Rejected Son (Matthew 21.28 – 42) ending with:

“This is why I say to you that the kingdom realm of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will bear its fruit…” When the leading priests and the Pharisees realized that the parable was referring to them, they were outraged and wanted to arrest him at once… (Matthew 21.43 – 46, TPT)

Outraged, indeed. It’s all about fruit. Who is bearing the fruit? Often, not the religious leaders who are “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (1 Timothy 3.5) What is the fruit? Scripture is clear. It’s NOT doing all the religious things and avoiding some arbitrary list of behaviors.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.8, ESV)

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58.6, 7, ESV)

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. (Matthew 25.35 – 36, ESV)