The Reasons why Jesus faced opposition

The political and cultural position- Palestine was under was quite intense. It had a strong Hellenistic culture brought in by the Greeks. This position was further compounded when the Romans became the new superpower, the Jewish people coming under further political and cultural oppression although of a different nature. The Jewish people had some freedom under the Roman law, although the Sadducees “Because of their political involvement, were more open to Hellenistic influence than the Pharisees. The Pharisees wanted the Messiah to return, who would deliver them from this foreign oppression.

There was already a lot of tension in first century - Palestine even before Jesus came into the picture. Consequently Jesus came into much conflict with these religious groups, not only because of what He said and did, but also because of His claim to be the Messiah of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for upholding their traditions equal or higher than the written law, and they attacked Jesus for hanging out with sinners and tax collectors

The Pharisees were the most prominent group - within first-century Judaism. They were driven by a vision for the whole people of Israel as a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5-6) This resulted in them becoming very religious when it came to ritual purity, tithing of all the produce and keeping the Sabbath according to their interpretation of work

The Pharisees own interpretation for everything, - believing in a literal understanding of the Law of Moses. The Pharisees had a list of rules of what people should not do on the Sabbath. They wanted to apply Torah to everyday life, they did this by “building a fence” around Torah to guard against any violation (The Torah is commonly known as the first five books of the O.T referred to as the Pentateuch)

This caused much opposition with Jesus, - when he saw them breaking or ignoring the written Torah’s direct teaching “by appealing to a tradition about Torah’s application.” Jesus accused the Pharisees of nullifying the commandments in Torah, by holding to human traditions and becoming legalistic. (See Luke 6:3-5 Jesus countered their hypocrisy with Scripture)

The Pharisees considered the authority of scripture - to be equal to their traditions, their own rules, which caused trouble with Jesus who called them hypocrites. “The keeping of their own sectarian rules and regulations had become far too important.”,

The Pharisees attacked Jesus - for hanging out with sinners and tax collectors (Mark 2:13-17; Luke 15:1-2). Their hostility was “because they felt he was lax with respect to their laws and traditions. Another conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees was because they saw Jesus as a threat to their leadership and thought he might influence people.

The Pharisees had lost sight - Of why they were obeying God’s laws; Jesus represented the Kingdom of God but they failed to recognize this. (See study on The True Prophet in Deut 18:15-22) The Pharisees were seeking the coming Messiah one who would lead to a glorious future reign, they were not looking for someone who would highlight their own shortcomings, they were proud of their religion and were not willing to change. They were blinded by their doggedness and could not see who Jesus really was, the true Messiah.

The Sadducees were the second major group - In Jesus’ day and where very influential, although they were only small, they consisted of the higher classed citizens and important temple priests. The Sadducees controlled the priesthood and had a lot of political power. The Sadducees came into conflict with Jesus because they felt threatened that they would lose this power and control. Their disbelief in the whole Torah stopped them from seeing a returning Messiah. They were consumed with their own self-works for personal gain. , and they opposed Him because they felt he would threaten their political position.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees join forces - Although each did not see eye to eye with each other due to differing theological standpoints, yet they joined forces to oppose Jesus. They saw Jesus as a threat to their deep routed legalistic ways. They made common cause with their political enemies. Both groups together had massive political and social influential, and this put an extreme amount of pressure on the Roman Rulers. which resulted in the decision to crucify Jesus.

The Reasons why Jesus Encountered opposition

When we begin to explore the reasons for the opposition Jesus faced during His earthly ministry, firstly we need to look at the religious, cultural and political tensions in Palestine at the time of Jesus. And secondly we need to consider the religious influences among the Jews of his day. Although there were a number of different religious bodies in Palestine, the main source of conflict Jesus encountered was from the Pharisees and Sadducees, each had differing views of Judaism.