That's why there was so little meaningful Scripture study, so little truly private prayer, so little relationship with God. The capacity wasn't even there. And while these hypocrites were meticulous Sabbath keepers and tithe payers and health reformers, there was so little on the inside that responded to the truths of God's Word, that they ended up tying the Scriptures to their wrists and foreheads in an attempt to substitute for what they lacked on the inside. There was no room for God's Word in their hearts. Self was the center of their focus.
Nobody is more selfish than a Pharisee.
And the new birth, which would have brought about the death of the Pharisee, because it changes the heart, was threatening to those who were interested only in changing the outside. They didn't like Jesus because He was more interested in the true meaning of the Sabbath than in the external regulations they had invented. They didn't like Jesus because He didn't observe their traditions, fasts, washings, and ceremonies. They didn't like Jesus because He wasn't impressed with their external goodness. They didn't like Jesus because of His teaching of self-surrender, the very thing they feared more than anything else.