His discernment could pierce through the manipulated layers of verbals and nonverbals designed to camouflage the hidden motives of those secretly against him. When he sensed a red light from God, he would submit even though he was fully aware of the totality of manipulative scheming in front of him (John 6:64). When he sensed a green light from God, however, he would execute one of his many social-jiujitsu responses to not only escape a trap laid against him, but end up inverting the original trap to immobilize the trap setter. Observers would be astonished as they repeatedly saw him about to get checkmated, only to reverse-shift the leverage and embarrassingly checkmate his opponents who thought they had the upper hand (Luke 20:19-26). He would do so without having an air of superiority, egotism, or cynicism, but just with an intention to carry out his part in God's redemptive purposes in human history.
If something occurs multiple times in a person's biography, it can be seen as an important part of their life. Although learning from Jesus is more than just learning from his street smarts, it is certainly nothing less than it. His early followers picked up on this (Romans 16:17-19, 2 Timothy 3:13).
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