We are all aware of what the Lord Jesus went through since His experiences among men are well documented historically. His worst adversaries were members of the then religion who should ironically enough have been the ones to recognise and welcome Him.

If truly they were serving God as they professed that they were then they should have been the ones to joyfully greet the Word of Truth that emanated from Christ. The fact that this was not the case is a true testament as to how they stood before God. They only pretended to be servants of God because their true nature showed itself in their animosity towards Jesus, the Only true One sent by God.

It is indeed incredible that for thousands of years the common people actually thought that these priests were truly servants of God since they held themselves to be so. The lie became apparent, however with the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth. The lie in their conduct and the pretence in which they acted. No indictment could be set forth so clearly as this.

These so-called priests were obviously only serving themselves and their vanities and the purpose of their earthly enrichment and no one else. They had already established ordinances and rules and observances that indeed must be followed by the people of Israel and woe betide him who dares to oppose them. He was ostracised and excommunicated forthwith if indeed he did not suffer a worse fate.

This tyranny had reach its peak when Jesus made His appearance. He, in a simple way came to show man that all the externals which had been added to the true Mosaic teachings were not necessary. He taught man that he could only serve God through the activity of his own spirit through his simple thinking, speaking and acting in a good way with love for his neighbour in his heart at all times. Nothing else was demanded of the human being by God.

This novel teaching was completely at variance with what had existed with the priests and the religious classes. The vast majority of the people saw that what Jesus was telling them was the Truth and they felt liberated for the first time in their lives and the wish to follow this Truth and act accordingly grew in them.

They flocked to Jesus in their thousands. This meant that they abandoned the priests and their teachings and the Temple, and as such the centre of religious and spiritual power had shifted from them towards Jesus and His Word. This severely undermined their influence and the possibility to continue to enjoy a good income through the penances imposed on the people. The Word through Jesus exposed them as being impostors, those who only pretended to serve God but only served their own purposes.

This created a situation where they faced complete elimination. What to do?! They could throw in their lot with Jesus and accept that He was the Son of God or they could fight back through whatever means they had at their disposal. A true servant of God would have chosen the former recognising the good in Jesus and accepting Him as the Master Who was to complete what was lacking in their own knowledge.

Their arrogance and conceit and belief in their own imagined knowledge did not allow them to do the right thing and the loss of face which they imagined would be the case if they acknowledged Jesus did not allow them to make the right choice and if anything only formed a bridge to the basest hatred for Jesus because of His superiority.

The envy which they had for Jesus’ superiority only served to inflame the hatred the more. They could only think of one thing: Jesus’ elimination as a threat to them and their reputations and livelihood. Something had to be done. All these then led to a situation where having tried so many ways to discredit Him which did not succeed and after having tried so many ways of finding an excuse to arrest Him eventually they found one who was willing to betray his Master.

What happened to Jesus then is simple politically motivated murder and nothing more! He was simply eliminated and destroyed because of the threat He posed to the status quo and the existing religious authority. It was never sanctioned by God and could never have been because such injustices and lack of logic are not attributes of the great Creator.

Let us begin to recognise this fact and thank the great Creator for sending His Son to teach us the way in the Word that He brought that would lead to our salvation.