Sometimes I just don't understand how Jesus put up with them. The religious leaders were THE issue in his recent encounters with the crowds. They give Jesus a hard time. They try to test and entrap him. They are hypocritical. They are not looking for the truth. They are more concerned about the minutiae of their traditional law than they are the will of God or the needs of his people. But the disciples just don't get it. Their concern is their belly. They can't hear the deep things of God for being consumed by the growling in their guts.
But about the time I think, "How stupid can they be?" I remember myself and my short-sightedness and my weakness and my inability to see, hear, and understand the most simple and plain things about the Lord. I am indeed thankful that he is gracious. But then, that brings me back to the hypocritical religious leaders: I must avoid them, because they are not gracious since they don't know God, just their traditional law.