Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the
palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest
Jesus in some sly way and kill him. Matthew 26:3-4
In the New Testament we see Satan using five external tactics against the
church: rulers, priests, merchants, mobs and families—and of course, these often
occurred in combinations. The followers of Jesus tend to unite the enemies of
Jesus, so that quite unlikely alliances can be created. Jesus himself saw this
when the Pharisees and the Herodians—two groups that never spoke to each
other—got together to plot his assassination after he healed a man with a
withered hand on the Sabbath (Mark 3:6).
It is surprising to some that the rulers are not the biggest persecutors of
Christians in the New Testament. That dubious honor falls to the Jewish priestly
caste. But there is no doubt that strong opposition came from the rulers.
Pontius Pilate was complicit in the death of Jesus; Herod Agrippa killed the
apostle James in Jerusalem (Acts 12:2); and
of course Nero initiated a terrible persecution against the Christians of Rome
in AD 64—the community most think Mark’s gospel was written to encourage.
Though it was Pilate’s order, it was really the Jewish high priest who pushed
Pilate into giving the order for the crucifixion when he was inclined to let
Jesus go (see John 18:31), and
tried to accomplish this by arranging a crowd clemency scene. All throughout his
ministry, Jesus’ bitterest enemies were the priests. And so it proved for the
early church. The first flogging of Christians was administered under the
auspices of the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:40), and
the first martyrdom of a Christian (Stephen) was carried out by enraged clerics
(Acts 7:54-59). And so it continued also for Paul, the main character of the early
church, ironically a former Pharisee and a witness to the stoning of
Stephen.
But it is a sad fact that the class threatened most by radical Christian
faith is the clerical class, whether of one’s own religious persuasion or of a
rival one. This is not to say all clerics are persecutors. Many Pharisees became
followers of Jesus, and some, like Nicodemus and Simon, were the very model of
courtesy and open-mindedness. Nevertheless, in the history of the church, other
“believers” have perpetrated most violence on Christians.
RESPONSE: Satan uses external as well as internal tactics to attack the advance of
the Kingdom of God.
PRAYER: Lord, help me show love to other “believers” who do not hear Your voice
but are used as tools of the enemy.