Those Jewish leaders talked together to work out their answer. They said to each other, “If we say that God told John to do it, then we will be in trouble. He will say to us, ‘So why didn’t you mob listen to him?’
All right, I will not tell you much more, because the boss over the bad spirits is getting close now. He is the boss over this world, but he is not my boss, so he can’t tell me what to do.
I always do what my father wants me to do, and he keeps on loving me. In the same way, if you keep on doing what I told you to do, I will keep on loving you.
After he comes, he will show people in the world that they go against God and do bad things. And he will show people that they don’t live the right way. And he will show people that one day God will judge everyone.
Then Pilate said, “So it is true that you are a big boss?” Jesus said, “Yes, you said that I am a big boss, and you are right. And I was born into this world so that I can tell everyone God’s true message. If anyone really wants to know the true message, they take notice of the things I say.”
Those men kept on asking the same question. So Jesus stood up and said to them, “Have any of you never done anything wrong? That man can go first. He can throw the first stone at her.”