If you knew Jesus was coming into first-century Israel and knew that after a three-year public ministry he would be killed, could you have predicted by whom? Who were his enemies? The occupying, godless Romans seem like a good choice. Or how about Jewish people who collaborated with Rome, the tax collectors, and their riff-raff friends? Nope. Wrong on both counts. Mark wastes no time telling us who Jesus’ mortal enemies are. It comes up at the beginning of chapter 3.

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And [the Pharisees] watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3.1 – 6, ESV)

“The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him…”

The Pharisees: the most religious, meticulously law-observing people around – they were the ones who wanted to destroy Jesus. Saul of Tarsus, who later became the Apostle Paul, tells what his life was like as a Pharisee. Jesus wasn’t around so he persecuted his followers:

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. (Galatians 1.13, 14, ESV)

Paul calls it “zealous.” Zealous for the traditions. Governor Pilate, on the other hand, calls them envious.

So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. (Matthew 27.17, 18, ESV)

It’s we religious people who can be so zealous for the wrong thing that we miss what God is doing. We can get hung up on our theology, our denomination, or worship style, or any number of things. Or we can be jealous of another ministry that seems to be more effective than ours.

And the common people heard Him gladly. (Mark 12.37, NKJV)

Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. (Mark 2.15, NKJV, emphasis mine)