Fight
Why do the elderly, that is, the leaders of the political system, fight Jesus? Why do the head priests, that is, the leaders of the religious system, fight Jesus? Why do the scribes, that is, those who knew the Torah almost by heart and the theologians fight Jesus? Why? Simply because they always fight humankind in its very essence.
Those who fight man, fight God and those who fight God, fight man. It is inevitable. Thoughout the history of mankind those who have fought men have also contemporaneously and openly fought God even if the temple rings with their voices reading psalms and leading prayers. This has been true throughout human history: those who were at war with God were also at war with man, even if they flooded the parliaments with constitutions and laws. Those who fight God will always and simultaneously fight man, will always be at war against humanity. Those who make war against man are always and simultaneously at war and in conflict with God.
But why does the person who is fighting, fight? Only the person who has lost goes to war, enters into battle. It is paradoxical, but no one goes to war, unless in the depths of his/her soul he/she is absolutely certain that he/she can never win, that is he/she cannot gain what he/she is interested in. The person who fights never gives him/herself a break from the conflict, he is at war with himself, with others, with God, with life, always and everywhere because he already knows that he has lost his/her battle. Satan began to fight God only when it was clear to him that he could never gain what he was really interested in, that is to win. War is always and everywhere fought by losers, by the defeated, by people who know they cannot win or achieve what they were set on. It has always been the feeling of not being able to win that has caused war between empires, nations, friends, couples and relationships.
Why did the elderly, the leaders of the political system, the head priests, the leaders of the religious system, the scribes, the ones who knew the Torah so well, the theologians fight Jesus? They did not fight Jesus to win, but because they knew that with Him they would never have a chance to win, they knew that with Him, more than with anyone else, they had already lost. When the political and religious powers fight to eliminate someone, it is only because they have understood with all certainty that they can never win against that person or what that person is sowing in the name of God.