From: https://www.owlmuses.com
Luke 20:20 is a vivid description of the forces opposing Jesus in the last days of His ministry before His death on the cross. In this brief statement, the picture is that of religious zealotry and how it insinuates itself into crowds and those in positions of leadership. No matter the cause, it is divisive and destructive.
Luke describes the behavior of the Jewish leaders toward Jesus beginning early in His ministry (Luke 6:7) until the end (Luke 20:20). Religious zealotry is as dangerous as political zealotry. It is motivated by the desire for power and control.
These religious zealots were presenting themselves as followers of Jesus early in the second year of His ministry. At that time, He, along with John, was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven in preparation for Israel to receive their king.
It was a gospel of repentance from dead works and of personal cleansing and preparation to participate in this kingdom on earth. So it was easy for many to come forward and be baptized by John and Jesus’ disciples. Such visible action did not require new birth. These were the tares sewn among the grain in Jesus’s parable of the grain fields.
These religious zealots found a place to hide, pretending to be part of the righteous remnant, pretending to be followers of Jesus. But in their hearts, hatred was brewing until it overflowed that last week in Jerusalem, just before the fourth Passover of Jesus’ ministry.
They were pretenders. The Greek term is hupokrinomai. The corresponding noun is hupokrites, from which we get the English term, hypocrite. A religious zealot is always pretending to be the determiner of truth while merely seeking power and control.
In this Woke/Cancel Culture generation in which we live, we need to be aware of what is taking place around us. This is no different than what Jesus experienced in His days on earth. It has always been true of life under the sun. Religious zealots are everywhere in a myriad of disguises.
What was different in Jesus’ day was the intensity of satanic and demonic activity seeking to destroy the Son of Man. This activity culminated in Satan’s defeat and Christ’s victory through His death on the cross and His resurrection.
In our day the internet, with its ability to propagate hate and deception along with enabling little people to gain notoriety beyond their individual capacity, results in chaos and confusion. Many resist and ignore what is taking place by simply tuning out the noise. But this will not stop the reign of terror that is being unleashed by powerful, well-funded people. Battles are never won by hiding in the closet.
Religious zealotry is not the answer. A genuine righteousness that comes from being born of God and living a life of obedience to God’s Word through the power of the Holy Spirit is the answer. This is the greatest power on earth today and, once unleashed, no power of man can defeat it. He who is in us is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
The apostle Paul wrote:
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (Rom 6:8-18)