JESUS WAS A BRILLIANT BEHAVIORAL ANALYST

Thought Adjuster: "In his last public discourse in the temple's courts, Jesus uncharacteristically did not mince his words toward his wannabe murderers. His forceful wake-up call could be mistaken for the issuance of curses on his tormentors, whereas he was cautioning them about the costly toll their iniquitous actions would take on their spiritual destiny.

It was a last merciful attempt on his part to extirpate them out of their spiritual coma. It was not too late—yet—for a last-minute conversion experience that would spare them the disgrace of becoming instrumental in the infamous murder of the long-awaited Savior of humankind.

Three years earlier, in his ordination sermon, Jesus enunciated the many blessings poured upon all types of unassuming personalities—the peacemakers, the merciful, the humble, the meek, the pure in heart, those persecuted for righteousness, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who mourn, those who weep, and the poor in spirit.

Now, in the final days of his human incarnation, he issued urgent warnings to a conflicted, self-appointedeliteabout to become willing instruments to murder because they had wrongly profiled him psychologically.

Having nothing to lose since they were plotting his execution, Jesus brazenly confronted the spiritualscum of the earth. He enunciated the lengthy list of their negative propensities: hypocrites, discriminators, merciless victimizers, false teachers, blind guides, dishonest individuals, hoarders of material wealth, ‘dumb teachers [who] strain out the gnat and swallow the camel,’ [UB 175:1.17], unscrupulous reprobates guilty of extortion, excesses, and deception, iniquitous blood-thirsty souls who reject the truth and spurn mercy, false guides of a nation, children of evil, offspring of vipers. Put in a nutshell, all show, with no substance.

He meted out spiritual guidance in both discourses—applauding the humble souls who displayed new-testament traits of right living while calling the bluff of hardened individuals who justified their wrongdoing with old-testament fervor.”