The Opposition Jesus Faced

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.

(1). The Opposition of 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.

(2) The opposition of 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.

(3) 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.

There are many incidents in the NT. were these religious leaders opposed Jesus. we have taken only a few to illustrate the point. - Against the things that Jesus said. - Against the things that Jesus did. - Against the company that Jesus kept.

Next Article >> The reasons why Jesus Faced Opposition

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