First of all he was perceived to be from
Second, he made them murderously upset, to the point of trying to throw him off of a cliff, when he said things like:
I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:25-29).
Or when he said:
I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 8:11)
But especially when he said things like:
Therefore I tell you, the
This failure to adequately hate the gentiles was also a key reason for the Jews continuing to reject Christ even after his ascension. As Paul found out when he told the Jews that Christ had said to him,
'Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'
Luke relates that,
Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live (Acts 22:21-22).
The Pharisees wanted a Messiah, not to save the Gentiles, but to destroy them. And when it appeared that Jesus had other plans, they wanted no part of what he was offering. The idea of Gentiles inheriting right along with, or even in place of any Jews, was anathema, and no one who held such ideas could possible be sane, much less the true Messiah.
