Religious Fear

Mark 11:15-19
In Deuteronomy 6 and 10 we are told to fear the Lord our God.  This is a good and necessary command.  We are told in verse 18 of this passage in Mark that the religious leaders did in fact fear Jesus.  But clearly this fear was not in obedience to the command given in Deuteronomy.  The fear talked about in Deuteronomy is a reverent fear, a fear of disobeying his commands and wandering from him.  This fear sees his holiness and righteousness and our wickedness and wretchedness and realizes the separation, and fears disobedience and straying out from under his mercy, realizing our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 11:28, 29).  This fear drives us to him tighter, clinging to him continually, finding shelter in his wings.  The fear talked about here in Mark 11:18 is a jealous fear, a selfish, fleshly fear that stems more from what his presence means for their success and status.  And this type of fear drives them to want to destroy him (vs. 19), to eliminate the threat he poses for their self-centered lives.  Now, none of us would confess or even entertain the thought of destroying him, that is absurd.  But do we not evidence this same reaction by our lives?  We read or hear passages of scripture that we don't like so we reinterpret them more to our liking, or justify our position under them in some deformed manner.  How is this any different than the reaction of the scribes and priests in this passage, aside from being more subtle and deceptive?  We also seek to eliminate the threat he poses, just as they did, we just are more "refined" and "civilized" in our attempts.