The groups most threatened by what Jesus was teaching were the Pharisees and other entrenched religious leadership, who were certainly "the establishment" in the religious sense, and acting as the middlemen people had to go through in matters concerning God. The hypocrites among them were particularly targeted by Jesus for scorn and harsh rebuke in his lectures, and as the Catholic Church felt about Martin Luther, they considered him a threat to their entrenched ways rather than a constructive critic trying to show them the way to get back on the right moral path.<br/> | The groups most threatened by what Jesus was teaching were the Pharisees and other entrenched religious leadership, who were certainly "the establishment" in the religious sense, and acting as the middlemen people had to go through in matters concerning God. The hypocrites among them were particularly targeted by Jesus for scorn and harsh rebuke in his lectures, and as the Catholic Church felt about Martin Luther, they considered him a threat to their entrenched ways rather than a constructive critic trying to show them the way to get back on the right moral path.<br/> |