Matthew 22:34 "But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together."

This is toward the end of Matthew's Gospel when all the Jewish leaders are trying to trap Jesus with various loaded questions and calculated snares. The Pharisees had tried, sending their disciples to ask Him about paying the Roman tax, a question which Jesus answered as only He could (Matthew 22:15-22). Then the Sadducees took a turn, asking Jesus about marriage in heaven, which Jesus answered by telling them they did not understand the resurrection and explaining it to them (Matthew 22:23-33). Hearing how Jesus dispatched of the Sadducees' question, the Pharisees now come together to plot their next move.

I don't know how much animosity there was between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but I'm sure there was some friction, as there is whenever people with a lot in common disagree on a major point. It seems that each group was inspired by the other to "up their game" against Jesus. I wonder how much of that competitive one-upmanship contributed to Jesus' death? Of course there was the political situation, the threat that these Jewish leaders felt to their power, and their pride and stubbornness, but I think there was probably an aspect of wanting to be the ones that finally "got" Jesus at play, too.

One of the great tragedies of Jesus' Passion and death is how much our fallen human nature played into it. It was not a pure power struggle, nor pure mistaken self-protection, although it can be seen through those lenses. Evil plays on all aspects of our sinful nature, and this was the ultimate attempted game of one-upmanship by evil, pitting the Pharisees and the Sadducees against each other and against Jesus. Even our relatively innocent competitive spirit can be inflamed to the point where we will not give up until we "win", disregarding that the thing we are winning has become something horrible. In this case, winning meant successfully getting rid of this annoying, uppity son of a carpenter, exactly what the devil wanted to happen. The real irony is that it was precisely in obtaining Jesus' death that His earthly enemies proved themselves entirely wrong, and the devil was wholly defeated, while the ultimate "win" was won for humanity. Jesus one-upped everyone for everyone!