Style

1. Why did Jesus and the religious leaders of His time clash so often?

There was a crucial difference in their style and departure point. The Pharisees were obsessed with ritual purity while Jesus emphasized compassion. Therefore, healing on the Sabbath was absolutely wrong for the Pharisees, and absolutely right for Jesus. He was only saying to them what God had said many times in the Old Testament: He is not interested in their legalistic rituals when their hearts were not right with Him (1 Sam. 15:22, Isaiah 1:12-17).

2. Why did Jesus address people at open air meetings?

Although Jesus attended the synagogue on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16), He used meetings at the lake-side or on the hill-side to heal and to teach. There He could do what He wanted to do without getting into arguments with the Pharisees, as often happened in the synagogue. That does not mean that we should avoid the church and seek contact with God in nature. We should rather make our worship in church meaningful; then our contact with His creation will become meaningful too. Jesus did both, and we should follow Him in that too.