"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident," stated the German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. Jesus was a perfect example of these stages of truth, as He was persecuted for bringing the truth into the world by proving the point on the cross.
Denial from the general public comes with the first stage of truth. It is our human nature to avoid anything unpleasant. When the truth imposes on one's knowledge or contradicts the accepted law, theory or thought of that time, people get defensive to protect their ego. The Jewish high priests and elders of the time of Jesus Christ considered His teachings of God's justice to be blasphemy, since the prophecy of the Messiah was interpreted by the common person as being a military leader, not a peaceful, loving leader whom was completely dependent on God. The Romans, even Jews, were content with their ways: govern (by fear) and justice (through pain and death). The Jews ridiculed Him for being recognized as "Son of God" and for revealing completely peaceful and loving ways towards salvation, which contradicted what the high priests and elders taught. Jesus also associated Himself with sinners and unbelievers. People assumed that a perfect God wouldn't waste His time on the unrighteous, such as sinners.
As Jesus continued His ministry, the pressure against Him was also building. In Matthew 16:20 of the Bible (all references to the New Living Translation version), "Then He sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah." Jesus knew how dangerous His ministry was, especially as His teachings and miracles began to attract large crowds even though He remained silent about being the Messiah, so He was always moving from one place to the next to avoid persecution to fulfill His purpose. The Bible shows the fear of the authorities in Mark 11:18 , "When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done (by rebuking and driving merchants out of the temple in Jerusalem), they began planning how to kill Him. But they were afraid of Him because the people were so amazed at His teaching." As the crowd got larger, the priests and elders were looking for reasons to persecute Him under Roman law, because He could become a serious threat to their authority if His crowd kept growing. Before Jesus could be put to death on the cross, the authorities needed Rome to approve of it first, so He was brought to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Although Pilate found him innocent, unable to find or even contrive a reason to condemn Jesus, he feared the crowds and let them decide Jesus' fate. Stirred by the Jewish chief priests, the crowds declared, "Crucify him!" Therefore, Jesus was sent to the cross mainly by His own people, the Jews, for being the truth.
The third stage of truth isn't clear how or when the epiphany happens, but the truth always comes out eventually as the Bible says in chapter 12 of Luke, verse 2: " The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all." As Jesus was dying in Matthew 27:50-51, "Then Jesus shouted out again (from the cross), and He released His spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart." Then in verse 54, "The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, 'This man truly was the Son of God!'" Once Jesus died and rose again three days later, the epiphany of the truth finally came to be known, since Jesus overcame death. The acknowledgement of Jesus to be the Son of God has remained to this day for majority of people worldwide.
As we see, Jesus came and was laughed at right away during His ministry, but as He gained support, He also gained enemies, such as high priests and elders, that would do anything to stop Him from continuing His ministry, which contradicted their practices. They persecuted Jesus all the way to the cross to try to silence His teachings, or the truth. But they failed to do so, because He rose again three days later to finish His ministry of revealing the truth of God, which is a message of God's justice through love. The way we, the majority of the public, follow authorities like sheep out of fear still remains to this day. So instead of just assuming what we know as "truth" today to be fact, we should be openly discussing every possibility out of love instead of using fear to prod the sheep into what a select few have called "truth" or "fact." So instead of criticizing or attacking someone for a creative or possible idea, shouldn't we foster creativity and open-mindedness to allow the truth to be known as soon as possible to minimize the amount of people affected in the process?
