With the presence of Rome in Jerusalem, identified as the western cold front in our metaphor, the perfect storm, during the final days before Jesus’ crucifixion, we now come to identify the high-pressure system out of the west that collided with that cold front that has entered Jerusalem. The Jewish problem is the second element that must be dealt with, as the storm builds itself into our perfect storm, and we’ll identify the Jewish element as an “overheated high pressure system.” When the western cold front disturbance clashes with the overheated high-pressure system, sparks will fly, but keep in mind these are still only two atmospheric conditions that make up our three-element perfect storm.
The history of the Jews is infinitely more complex than that of Rome. Its “overheated high pressures system” extended back over two millennia to Abraham and from him they were brought forward to Moses and then to David and his dynasty of royal figures. After David, came the prophets and after them, the Jews were brought through the Babylonian captivity to their restoration in the land, but fulfillment was cut short by the influence of the pagan Persian and Grecian empires.
Ever looking for the fulfillment of the promises, the Jews found themselves locked into the so-called Pax Romana doctrine and the Jews’ present servitude to Rome. Nevertheless, in the spring of each year, the Jews celebrated their God-given freedom during the Passover season, looking back to where the Lord, through Moses freed them from their bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt. As they recalled those ancient stories and prayed over their present condition, they held out hope in the Lord that he would again fulfill his promise to free them from bondage, this time from the cruel Roman yoke. The repeated annual celebration of the Lord’s intervention preserved the hope that he would continue to do as he had done in the past, and he would at last bring his promises to their fulfillment through an anointed king, whom they referred to as the promised Messiah.
Certain prophecies in the book of Daniel tended to raise the emotional hopes of the Jews and placed on the leading edge, toward what they perceived would be the final fulfillment of the promises, they’d been given by God. These promises went back to the very beginning of their history, to the call of Abraham out of his country into this Land of Promise, promises that had never been fulfilled in their completeness. Presently, however, great expectations of that final fulfillment had come to the forefront of their hopes, as Jewish pilgrims witnessed what local Jews had dubbed a Prophet, coming slowly down Mount Olives on the eastern horizon. Jesus had mounted a donkey and came into Jerusalem by the Eastern Gate, as folks laid down their cloaks before him, just as many had done at the coronation of King Jehu (cp. 2Kings 9:4-6, 11-13), and all this was done amid his disciples’ joyful chants of Hosanna! – “Save Now!”
Of course, stoking the flames of this overheated high-pressure system were the local political forces of the day, the Pharisees, some of whom were also zealots, and the predominantly upper-class Sadducees. Each party had a bone to grind and sought to control the popular zeal to be free of the Roman scourge. The Pharisees were more religious in nature, and sought to return to what was perceived to be, a more strictly enforced code of law, called the Oral Law, which they claimed was given to Moses to interpret the written law. The Sadducees, on the other hand, were made up of the wealthy, the businessmen and the upper-class priestly line. They were generally happy with the status quo, because it suited their purpose of retaining and gaining wealth and power. Nevertheless, their relationship with Rome wasn’t held together by loyalty and trust, but by bribes and promises of political support.
The political air was, nevertheless, electrified with expectations that the Messiah had finally come. The final Exodus was on the horizon, and the evil enemy, Rome, would at long last be cast out and defeated, just as the Syrian king was cast out by the rising up of the Maccabees. Thus, the charged air seemed to promise something new was about to happen. The Roman cold front had come into Jerusalem from the west, meeting the politically charged and overheated high-pressure system already in Jerusalem and was promising to be a storm of very dangerous proportions. This was not a safe place for the Jewish Prophet from Nazareth to come riding into on a donkey, amid the joyful shouts of his disciples: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel” (Matthew 21:9; John 12:13).
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