17And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18"See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day."
I'm struck by the odd coalition of religious leaders and secular rulers that combined to try to kill of Jesus. The Romans had no dog in the theological fight of whether Jesus was the Messiah or not; they were merely trying to keep order and placated a Jewish mob by dispatching a renegade prophet. Pilate knew he was executing an innocent man, but he'd have more blood on his hands if he didn't.
We'll sometimes see the modern Church tag-teamed by the secular government and theological foes of the Church. Secular governments generally strive to create order, so that the status quo is the default value. In days of yore, that often was to the benefit of the Church, as they were part of the status quo and the heterodox folks were tipping the apple carts.
However, if spiritual heterodoxy is the norm, the Church can have stumbling blocks set in its way by the authorities. New ministries to the poor can fall pray to NIMBY zoning laws and church expansion can be blocked by secular neighbors. Also, when theologically orthodox believers are stuck in increasingly heterodox denominations and don't walk with their feet, the law can be stacked against the upstarts.
Jesus came to transform the status-quo, not merely reform it. He didn't fight authority directly, essentially pleading no-contest to any charges against Him. In time, the Church was (at least nominally) in the majority, but it did so one believer at a time rather than a frontal jihad against the Romans, Pharisees and Sadducees.
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