The Political Minefield Jesus Enters
Most Christian upbringing, just like mine, tends to create a scenario
of Jesus meandering through a pink hazed landscape inside a bubble of lovely
stories that insulate the reader of the New Testament from reality. We have
pictured a gentle man sitting on a grassy knoll quietly sharing stories with
groups of avidly interested listeners. They lean forward toward him and smile
sweetly to their neighbors, while perhaps singing a first century version of
‘kumbaya’.
Not so! Jesus may have been
inherently gentle and compassionate, but the people around him were noisy,
argumentative, demanding and sometimes downright ornery. And they had reason to
be that way. Let’s take a few snapshots of the upheavals and hostility that
surrounded Jesus as he started his ministry. The camera view will help clarify
the tensions and political/religious fractures that Jesus had to deal with
constantly. And it wasn’t a pretty sight. The turmoil ultimately killed his
cousin, forced Jesus to stay away from large cities for his own safety, and
eventually led to his own crucifixion.
Keeping the history lesson short and sweet, here are a few quick photos
that show the political ‘mines’ being placed in the field.
1000 B.C. A small tribe begins a nation and Solomon, the first king
builds the Temple - the holy place where ‘God can reach down and touch earth’.
600 B.C. Raiders crisscross the area and Babylonians outright destroy
the Temple.
500 B.C. The Temple is rebuilt as well as the fledgling nation under
Persian rule.
300 B.C Alexander the Great rides into town and wants to set up his
statue inside the Temple – the Temple narrowly missed being destroyed again.
The Greeks remain, however and the Ptolomies and then the Seleucids
rule. The rich Jews love the new culture and become copycats. The working class
grumbles and wants a return to ‘old time religion and politics’. And then,
horrors of horrors the Greeks outlaw circumcision, which marks Jews as Jews,
and actually erect a statue of Zeus in the Temple. Chaos reigns. The Maccabeans
eventually return the nation to the Jews, but they just can’t seem to stop the
infighting.
63 B.C. The Romans enter the photo and create a form of stability
through oppression. And guess who they name client king? The Roman pet who just
loves to grovel. . . .wait for it! . . Herod the Great, now named ‘King of the
Jews’!
. . .And into this constantly exploding minefield walks Jesus.
Note that the
Jewish nation was placed between two competing giants, the Egyptians, and the
Babylonians who traipsed back and forth across the Jewish lands regularly every
few decades or so, followed by Alexander and then the Romans, all with
devasting results.
1.
How
would this devastating history affect the average Jew’s emotions and politics
during Jesus’s day?
2.
What
are several ways the Jews might have responded to these oppressors?
3.
What
was Jesus’ response?
4.
How
are these traumas of the past still affecting this region today?
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