Several of the recent texts in this series of gospels from Matthew (the lectionary "A" cycle) have focused on collisions between Jesus and the Jewish church power structure, focused in the Pharisees. Today’s text is another in the series. As the movement in Matthew races inevitably to the final showdown and the crucifixion, the confrontations become more pointed, the accusations more shrill.

In this text the Pharisees are actually described as plotting to entangle Jesus. The short-term goal was to embarrass and discredit him; the long-term goal was to get him into a dilemma from which he could not extricate himself, with the result that his own following would turn on him and he would lose his following, and, as a possible added bonus, the leadership might collect evidence with which to p…