Jesus Christ’s Opposition to the Jewish State: Lessons for Today

The New Testament portion of the Bible, and specifically the first four books of the New Testament which are referred to as "Gospel Accounts" documenting the historical life of Jesus Christ, has numerous accounts of Jesus' encounters with the Jewish leaders of his day, and his constant opposition against them. Much of this is recorded concerning his teaching in the great Temple in Jerusalem, and opposing the Jewish State. In John Chapter 8, Jesus debated with the ruling Jews in the Temple, refuting their claim that they were a privileged class simply based on their ethnicity tracing back to Abraham. He told them that they actually served Satan, the Father of Lies. But Jesus did more than just make fools out of the ruling Jews by debating them, he also directly challenged their authority, and the most common way he did that, was by healing people. By Jewish Law, only priests had the authority to declare anyone "healed" of diseases under the laws of Moses. Jesus knew this, and often after he healed someone, he told them to go show themselves to the priests, and let the priests take the credit for the healing, but this was mostly done in the earlier part of his ministry as he tried to avoid conflicts with the Jews as much as possible. After the debate in the Temple recorded in John Chapter 8, however, the gloves came off, and Jesus appeared to get very serious about making the Jewish rulers look like the fools they were, and demonstrating just how superior his power was over theirs. In John Chapter 9, we have the record of an amazing event, where Jesus heals a man who was actually born blind, which had never happened before. And he did it on a Sabbath, which the Jews claimed was illegal, just to piss them off even more. But in the process of receiving eyesight for the first time in his life, this man lost everything else, including his family, for admitting the truth that it was Jesus who healed him and gave him his eyesight.