Two hundred years ago, slavery was abolished in this country. William Wilberforce spent eighteen years trying to get a bill through Parliament for the abolition of slaves. The question that this raises is, why did so many M.Ps oppose this bill? It was the right and good thing to do, yet many were opposed. the answer is a similar one that motivated the opponents of Jesus.
The opposition Jesus faced, fall into three groups.
1. The secular rulers of His day. - 2. The religious leaders of His day. - 3. The people of His day.
The secular rulers of His day.
Herod This opposition started almost immediately after His birth. It began with King Herod. The incident recorded in the Bible was to be known as “The slaughter of the Innocents” In Matt. ch.2.16 we read that Herod was angry and gave orders for all male children under the age of two to be killed. What motivated him to commit such a cruel and barbaric act? We will answer this question a little later.
Pontius Pilate. In John 19.12. We see that Jesus is brought before this Roman governor. After asking Jesus some questions, he would have released Him. However, we can see from the verse that this was not the case. Pilate was persuaded by the crowd to crucify Jesus and to release Barabbas a murderer. What was the real reason behind his decision? Again we will see this a little later.
With these two rulers it becomes clear that Jesus faced fierce opposition at the beginning and the end of His earthly life. - We may in measure be able to understand how secular and non religious leaders and rulers may be opposed to someone like Jesus but it is much harder to understand why people in our next group would be opposed to Him.
The religious leaders of His day - In the days of Jesus, the religious leader were composed of three main parties.
The Pharisees. These were people who believed in, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, in angels and spirits, the Old Testament and the laws of Moses. These they observed to the letter. They had a piety that made them separate from the ordinary people.
The Sadducees. This party did not believe in, the resurrection of the body, in angels and sprits and they rejected the traditions of the elders.
The Scribes. This group were like secretaries. Their role was to copy out the Mosaic laws. It can clearly be seen from the above descriptions that these parties did not have a lot in common. In fact, they were not normally united . Yet they were united in their opposition to Jesus.
There are many incidents in the NT. were these religious leaders opposed Jesus. we have taken only a few to illustrate the point. - 1. Against the things that Jesus said.- 2. Against the things that Jesus did. - 3. Against the company that Jesus kept.
The things that Jesus said. - Jesus never made a statement or comment that was not completely true. Yet these religious leaders tried to find fault in the things that he said. For example, in Mark 2.4-12 here we have the narration of Jesus healing a paralysed man. As well as the healing, He forgave his sins. Now look at the attitude of the scribes in vs. 6&7 then look at the reply that Jesus gave in the next five verse. Who was right? This was a direct attack on the divinity of Jesus.
A similar challenge is made in Luke 20.1-19.v2 shows the reasoning of the religious leaders. Vs. 3&4. Looks at the Response of Jesus. In vs. 5-7 we see the Reaction of the religious leaders. In vs. 8-18. Jesus makes it very clear where His authority comes from. In the remainder of this chapter, they tried in many ways to catch Him out in what He said, yet they were unsuccessful. This is a chapter that is well worth reading on this subject.
The things that Jesus did.- When you read the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, you are struck by the amount of good things that He did. This is particularly evident in the gospel of Mark Peter in his message to Cornelius, in Acts 10 says, “Jesus went about doing good” see v10. Yet the religious leaders found fault in His worksIn Mark 3:2 we see that it was evident that the religious leaders were more concerned about keeping the Sabbath day laws than they were about people.In v3-5 we see that Jesus was more concerned about people than about their laws. In healing the man, He left them with a challenge. Look at their reaction in v6.
The company that Jesus kept. - We have seen the failure of the religious leaders to trap Jesus by what He said and by what He did. They now try a different method of attack. In Mark 2.15-22. We see how this attack commenced in v16. Again look at the reply of Jesus in the next verse.
The opposition of the people. - One would think that the people of Jesus day would have considered themselves to be very fortunate. They had the privilege of seeing and hearing the Son of God face to face. Sadly this was not always the case as we shall see. Just a few illustrations from the scriptures to make this point.
In Mark5.1-7 we have an amazing display of the power of God in Jesus. Here He performs a great miracle. If we look at v17 we will see how the people reacted. They prayed/ begged Him to leave their land.. In Luke 4. We see that the people described His teachings as gracious words v22. Now look at their reaction in vs. 28-29. How things change when we hear things we do not like. They became very angry and threw Him out of the city.
Look at the reaction of Nathaniel when he heard of Jesus. John 1.46. He had a very low opinion of people who came from Nazareth. This changed after he met Jesus. Finally in Luke 23. 35-39. Here the people, the guards and a condemned thief express their opposition to Jesus.
Wilberforce. Faced opposition from his fellow MPs. - Jesus. Faced opposition from the secular rulers,
The religious leaders and from the people.
In the above situations I feel that the motivation was FEAR.
The MP’s in Wilberforce’s case feared the loss of revenue that abolition would bring.
Herod. Feared he would lose his throne. He was not the rightful king.
Pilate. Feared the people, he also had the fear of losing the friendship of Caesar.
The religious leaders. Feared the loss of their authority and of losing face.
The people. Feared the cost of following Jesus.
Today they still reject the message Jesus brings - All of these people where made fearful by the father of all fear. Satan. He was also fearful and tried to thwart the plan of God for the salvation of lost sinners. He failed as well.mAs we read these accounts, it becomes very clear that nothing has changed in 2000 years. Today the same attitude prevails.
Rulers and nations still oppose Jesus. Religious leaders still oppose Jesus. People still oppose Jesus.
Yet again the answer is still FEAR.
If we can conclude that fear is the root cause of opposition to Jesus, then this fear needs to be removed. What is the answer and where can we find it? The answer of course, is in the Word of God. 1John4.18 “perfect love casts out ALL fears” We know of course, that perfect love can only be found in a perfect person. The only perfect person is Jesus. The one against whom all the opposition was directed.
We all have our fears; to overcome them we must ask God in prayer to increase in us His perfect love. We need to ensure that we know the Saviour and that we have asked Him to forgive our sins. We need to accept, that all the opposition that He faced, was because He loved us with His perfect love. We need to accept that His death on the cross was for your sins and mine.
We may in measure be able to understand how secular and non religious leaders and rulers may be opposed to someone like Jesus but it is much harder to understand why the religious leaders would be opposed to Him.
THE OPPOSITION JESUS FACED DURING HIS EARTHLY MINISTRY.