Conflicts with the Religious Elite

If you are follow Jesus it almost inevitable that you will experience conflicts with institutional religious leaders. Who were Jesus' greatest enemies? Was it the secular Roman leadership, like Pilate? Most of the Jews saw the Romans (non-Jews) as their greatest enemies. But this was not the case with Jesus. In fact when he was brought to trial, Pilate wanted to let him go declaring him an innocent man. It was the Jewish religious leadership that insisted on him being put to death, as Jesus' prophecied: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Luke 9:22 Which was also in accordance with the principle he taught that: "a man's enemies will be the members of his own household." Mt 10:36

The Corrupting Effect of Institutionalism

Throughout the history of Christianity, its greatest enemy has often been not the world's leadership, but its own institutional leadership. And who is going to tell you this? It is unlikely you'll hear this from institutional leaders. Yet they have made themselves as if the exclusive spokesmen of what consitutes legitimate Christianity. As in Jesus' time so even up to the present. It seems almost inevitable that movements will become corrupted through their institutionalization. Inherent in our sinful nature is the fact that power corrupts. Institutionalism established positions of power which inevitably becomes sources of corruption. This is not to say that we shouldn't necessarily institutionalize the practice of Christianity, as it does it have some benefits, but we must come to realize that there is a price to pay.

Consider forms of government. Because power corrupts it's almost inevitable that dictatorial forms of government will turn out bad in the long run. In the last 50 years, the world has seen the benefit of democracies where there's inherently a check and balance system in place so that corrupt leadership doesn't get out of control. Church leadership has been primarily dictatorial. You go to a church and you basically get lectured at. Feedback is not encouraged nor is criticism of the leadership. Few churches even allow for discussion among the membership of their personal interpretations of the Bible. How can an individual deal with corrupt leadship under such circumstances? Basically Christians have voted with their feet. Denominationalism has resulted. Some churches will claim that they have a built in check and balance system in which an elite group of individuals will keep the pastor in line, but then who is allowed to keep them in line?

"Democratic" type of churches are also not free from corruption. What percentage of the Jewish population followed Jesus? A minority, a remnant. Whatever is popular tends to be deviant from the truth. The majority of people in the world who call themselves "Christians" don't actually treat Jesus as Lord. Most don't take the Bible seriously. Now what happens when you put such a majority in charge of an institutional church? The church will look just like them. Who are they going to vote for in chosing leadership? Someone just like them who will tell them just what they want to hear. The remnant doesn't have a voice. The nominal Christians have taken away their voice by establishing a "lecture" format in which they are not allowed to speak. Rules and regulations are established whereby the unpopular Biblical believers are not allowed to disagree with the leadership. What happens as a result? Often they simply leave.

This is not to say that institutional churches have been established by a bunch of nominal Christians. For often what happens in this: A believer comes out of a corrupt church that won't change and won't listen to him. He establishes a new church. It becomes popular and therefore it becomes corrupt, nominal Christians become dominant. The remnant minority lose their voice, many of whom leave, making the nominal Christians to be even more dominant in the institution. The institution becomes a monument to nominalism.

This is not necessarily something that needs to be fixed. This is just what happens. Historically, Christian leadership has been obsessed over establishing the perfect institution. That is not Christ's objective. It was not his objective then and it is not his objective now. Institutionalism was established to facilitate the maturing of individual believers to the end that they would be involved in ministry but it has becomes an end itself.

"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Eph 4:11-13

Today if you use the word "church", most people think of a building or an institution. But Christ' church is people. If you destroy its builldings and you haven't touched it. But those obsessed over buildings often don't understand Jesus

"Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." John 2:19

Jesus was involved to an extent in the Jewish synagogues, but he was often treated contemptuously by the religious leadership, and he prophecies:

"Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues." Mat 10:17
"They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God." John 16:2

And this is generally the kind of experience you may have in Christian churches if you follow Jesus.

Criticism of Religious Leadership

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!"Matt 23:13

Hypocrisy is the effect of spiritual pride. Innate within the attitude of spiritual superiority is a condescending judmentalism of others. The Bible does instruct us to judge ourselves and to judge others. Jesus himself was judging others (the religious leaders in particular) in his statements throughout Matthew 23, for example. But the religious leaders neglecting judging themselves. Paul, himself a Pharisee, also made this observation:

"Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth-- you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." Rom 3:17-24

Pride causes one to ignore one's own sinfulness. But why is pride so characteristic of religious leaders? For two reasons:

1. Positions of leadership attract proud people.
2. Humble people who become leaders often become proud. This is the corrupting affect of power.

God often arranges for the humble to take positions of authority. Take Moses, for example. He was a humble man, yet he was not allowed to enter the promise land because of a pridefully vain act he committed. Similarly with King David. Started off well, but finished poorly. This is quite common.

How does Jesus deal with proud people? He humiliates them. This was not for their destruction, but for their benefit. As a father chastises his son for his own good, so Jesus humilates the proud to develop in them the essential character quality of humility, without which they cannot be saved. He humilates them by:

Pointing out their sinfulness and particularly their hypocrisy.
Revealing their poor understanding of the Bible.
Revealing their lack of love for individuals, putting symbolism and ceremony over meeting people's actual needs.
And pointing to himself as Lord and therefore a higher authority than they.
Revealing their sinful behavior to others by using them as paradigms in his parables.

The Reaction of the Proud

1. Hostility

Proud people do not respond well to criticism, but wise men do respond well.

Pr 9:8

Solomon is not giving a command, but making an observation. This type of figure of speech must be understood when interpreting proverbs and much of Jesus' teaching, such as "Judge not and you shall not be judged"Mat 7:1, which is also not a command, but a proverbial observation. If you judge others, they will judge you. Jesus criticized others and so others criticized him even to the point of murder.

2. Deaf, Dumb & Blind

Pride leads to spiritual blindness. Jesus does all kinds of miracles even healing a man born blind and raising Lazarus from the dead, but nothing convinces the proud religious leaders. They are blind to the evidence, being incapable of thinking reasonably. They are blind also to their own sinfulness, even to their hypocrisy.

And they are deaf to the teachings of Christ. They can't understand what he means.

They are dumb in that they can't speak the truth, but rather utter lies and slanders against Christ.

What to Expect & What to do

"Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." Joh 15:20

As you follow Christ, don't be surprised if the greatest source of hostility against you comes from institutional religious leaders or those who think themselves the religious elite. It's nothing new. What should you do? Just what Jesus did. Fearlessly humiliate the proud. There's a popular saying today among Christians: WWJD: What Would Jesus Do? Better if this were WDJD: What Did Jesus Do? For it seems that many Christians do not have in their mind the historical Biblical Jesus, but a "Jesus" whom they make up in their own mind. When you walk as Jesus did you will see how other Christians really view the Biblical Jesus.

"Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Heb 12:3

Verses quoted from the NIV version

The Boston Christian Bible Study Resources
Apr 12,2004