He was opposed, no, not specially by the political rulers Pontius Pilate and King Herod, but by the religious oppressors of the people, namely, the priests and their scribes and the religious sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees, clergymen, who, as Jesus said, “bind up heavy loads and put them upon the shoulders of mankind, but they themselves are not willing to budge them with their finger.”—Matt. 23:1-4, NW.