The Leaders that Challenged Jesus and Lost

Many scholars believe that Matthew’s Gospel was originally written to a Jewish audience.

After taking a closer look at Matthew 21 and 22, there seems to be some strong evidence. Within these 2 chapters, Matthew carefully recounts Jesus’ discussions with every major religious leader in Jerusalem at that time.

If someone of Jewish descent were to question the validity of Jesus as the Messiah, these chapters give excellent testimony.

Let’s take a closer look.

If Jesus is going to have a verbal battle-royal with every genius in Jerusalem, we should probably know who all these characters are. Don’t you think?

Today, we’re going to unpack some of the details surrounding First Century Jewish leadership. Who were they? What do their titles mean? Why did they try to discount Jesus?

First Century Jewish Leaders:

To begin this Jewish Leadership lesson, we go back to last week in Matthew 21. We read,

“…the chief priests and the elders of the people…” came to Jesus and questioned His authority (21:23).

After Jesus rides into Jerusalem under huge fan-fare, the chief priests and elders were the first members of Israel’s power elite to tangle with Him (and get burned). But who were these guys?

Chief Priests & Elders:

The chief priests were members of the high priestly families. Most of them stemmed back to the tribe of Levi. These chief priests would have worked in the Temple, under the authority of the high priest.

The Elders were the community leaders and judges of Jewish society. Tribal or family lines often separated them. We’re not exactly sure of the electoral process of these Elders, but it’s clear that they were the designated representatives for Jewish communities.

Strike one up for Jesus!

How did the conversation end with the chief priests and elders? Last week we read,

“…they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.” (21:46)

Moving on to our next challengers. In verse 15 and 16 of chapter 22, we read that,

“…the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.”

So the Pharisees are going to set a trap, but they’re not going to dirty work. Nope, they’re going to get their disciples teamed up with the Herodians, and sit back and watch. Just making sure they take care of themselves and throw everyone else under the bus.

Pharisees Disciples & Herodians:

The Pharisees disciples were in fact, their students and followers; much like Jesus disciples, other than they had terrible teachers.

As we see in chapter 22, they hang these students out to dry. They likely pawned it off as excellent learning experience, but these disciples didn’t know what they’re in for.

The Herodians that they teamed up with need a bit more explanation.

These folks held the cities political power. Most scholars believe that Herodians were a political party that supported King Herod, and in turn, supported the Roman Empire’s ruler over Jewish territory from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39. And this is really what’s so nauseating about this match-up.

The Pharisees detested the Roman occupation (as did most Jewish leadership), but the Herodians capitalized on the Roman occupation. These two groups shouldn’t be getting along. However, they make a deal because Jesus is their common enemy.

This tag-team doesn’t work either. As we already read in verse 22,

the Pharisees disciples and Herodians “…were amazed. So they left him and went away.”

Jesus gets on the board again. So far, this is blow-out!

Sadducees:

In verse 23, we see our next contenders.

“…the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.”

But who are the Sadducees?

These fellas were an elitist group, who spent a lot of time around the Temple but didn’t always get along with the Pharisees. Mainly, because they had some contradictions.

On one hand, Sadducees rejected the idea of the Oral Law. They insisted on a literal interpretation of the Written Law. Consequently, because they’re the conservative view of the literal Written Law, they did not believe in life after death, since it’s not mentioned in the Torah.

The Torah, the whole Torah and nothing but the Torah.

However, on the other hand, Sadducees took a strange liberal swing by incorporating Hellenism into their Jewish beliefs. Hellenism, in case you didn’t know, is a devotion to Greek thought, custom and reason.

Can you imagine this? Conservative to the literal Written Torah, yet they mixed in the occasional Greek philosophy?

Jesus takes these guys out as well!

In fact, he does such a good job at working the Sadducees over, that in verse 33 it says that the crowds,

“…were astonished at his teaching.”

Oh no Pharisees, you’re going to have to take care of this Jesus character, all by yourselves.

We come back to verse 34 of chapter 22,

“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.”

Pharisees:

The name Pharisee in Hebrew means separatists or the separated ones. They believed in the entire Old Testament and tried to obey all God’s laws.

Culturally, they were known to be loyal to God or loved of God; which is extremely ironic that they were the most bitter, and deadly, opponents of Jesus and His Message.

Nevertheless, many scholars believe that Pharisees originally meant to obey God, but eventually, they became so devoted and extremist to certain parts of the Law (and portions that they added themselves), that they became blind to the Messiah.

Stay tuned…

Join the Conversation; Share Your Thoughts:

In Matthew 21 and 22, Jesus challenges every type of jewish leader. What do you know about each of these religious leaders? Why is Jesus’ discussions significant to the Gospel?