Bad Religion

‘With (Judas) was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders’ – Mark 14:43 (NIV)

The dramatic intervention of the Son of Man coming and establishing the kingdom of God on earth exposed just how evil human religion can be.

From the moment Jesus established his ministry base in Capernaum and started proclaiming the kingdom and demonstrating the power of the kingdom, the religious establishment began to resist him.

Mark records five consecutive stories in Mark 2:1 – 3:6 which track the Pharisees from their initial concern that Jesus should forgive a person’s sins; to questioning the way he kept company with the people they considered sinful; to concern that he did not fast in the way they expected; through to outright rejection when he claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath and made the point by publicly healing a maimed man in the synagogue on the Sabbath. ‘Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot … how they might kill Jesus’ (Mark 3:6-NIV).

They then stated that Jesus was acting as an agent of satan (Beelzebul), to which Jesus pointed out the obvious illogicality that if that was so, satan was destroying his own house! He then told them they were guilty of the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Later, Mark records a dispute where Jesus gives examples of the way the Pharisees and teachers of the Law teach the people their own man-made religious rules, which directly contradict some of the commands of God. ‘(Jesus) continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions” (Mark 7:9-NIV).

Jesus taught his apostles that their central, leading mistake was hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is acting. To be a hypocrite is to act the part! Acting all pious and religious and righteous when their hearts were far away from loving God and any genuine desire to be like him.

Probably the most horrible picture of this is the parable Jesus tells in Mark 12:1-12, the parable of the tenants. The sheer violence of this parable is really horrifying.

In the temple, the Pharisees try to trick him. ‘But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked’ (Mark 12:15-NIV).

The Sadducees then tried to trap him with a silly religious question, but he silenced them, ‘Are you not in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?' (Mark 12:24-NIV).

Their leadership was marked by fear; ‘they feared the people’ (Mark 11:32-NIV).

They rejected the prophet John the Baptist, who God had raised up to prepare the nation for the Messiah.

Even the very chief priests wanted to kill Jesus (Mark 11:18).

So they sent a crowd armed with swords and clubs to arrest Jesus. They sentenced Jesus to be killed in a quickly gathered court hearing. They whipped up the lynch mob to demand that Jesus be crucified. And they mocked him when he was being crucified. ‘Let this Christ, this king of Israel come down from the cross that we may see and believe.’

Bad religion:

1) Creates its own rules and traditions and teaches that these are more important than the laws God has given.

2) Wants to control people.

3) Calls good evil.

4) Is hypocritical – all about acting the part.

5) Is driven by fear.

6) Does not know the scriptures or the power of God.

7) Rejects the prophets that God raises up.

8) Kills those people who don’t obey their religious leaders.