From the beginning of his ministry Jesus drew opposition from various people to his claims and his teachings. It is hard to imagine, especially when we see the "syrupy" Jesus so many people claim to follow, that he could ever have anyone opposed to him or his teachings. But the Bible presents a totally different Jesus -- a Jesus that was opposed and that said things that made many uncomfortable. A Jesus that presented the God of the Bible as both a loving God, and a God of justice (these characteristics are NOT mutually exclusive). Love for his creation demands that God be just in dealing with his creation.

Jesus received opposition from the scribes and Pharisees for his "forgiving sins." When the men brought the paralytic to Jesus, Jesus first said that "his sins were forgiven." (Matthew 9:2ff; Mark 2:5ff). The scribes protested, saying that Jesus blasphemed. He also told the sinful woman who washed his feet that her sins were forgiven as well (Luke 7:36ff).

The Rabbis believed that "no sick man is healed from his disease until all his sins have been forgiven." It was, therefore, in full accordance with their own notions that He who by His own authority could heal diseases could also by His own authority pronounce that sins were forgiven." ( F.W Farrar, The Life of Christ Two Volumes, 1874)

Jesus was charged with being a "glutton and a wine-drinker." This was a false charge, for while Jesus did not live an austere life as John The Baptist, he did live the simple life. He accepted invitations to feasts so that he could teach and do good.

They also accused him of not fasting, and thus casting aspersions on his spirituality (Matthew 9:14-17). But they could not really press this charge as they themselves were not commanded by Moses but to fast once a year. Even some of the wisest and noblest of teachers in the Jewish faith had not encouraged it; and when one reads Isaiah and Jeremiah, and find God's condemnation of their fasting; they could not condemn in Jesus what they themselves would not do.

Perhaps the one thing they had the biggest problem with was that Jesus associated with sinners. They felt that the taint of sin would affect everything around them, and when Jesus did not honor and agree with them, Jesus rebuked their unkindliness and their self-satisfaction by the proverb, "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." The objection did not, however, die away. In His later days, when he was journeying to Jerusalem, these enemies continually raised this murmur, "This man receives sinners and eats with them;" and then it was that Jesus answered them and justified His ways, and revealed more clearly and more lovingly than had ever been done before the purpose of God's love towards repentant sinners. The parables of the lost coin, lost son and lost sheep emphasizes that God loves them and the world so much.

As Jesus preached, he received opposition. Should we be surprised that we will receive the same when we try to be like Jesus? Are we like Jesus?