We are studying N.T. Wright’s book, Simply Jesus, and are presently in the seventh chapter of his work.[1] In my previous study, we have come to learn that the Jewish authorities in the south were worried over Jesus’ proclamation that God was King. In a modern context, this might look like, although one political party is ruling the nation, another began to proclaim that they were in charge, and there was a new government, and that without any peaceful transfer of power. That is what we call seditious; it is like what men sought to do in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters tried to overturn the peaceful elections of November 2020 and place Donald Trump back in office. A sedition is violent, but this does not describe Jesus’ Gospel.
The problem, as I understand it is, the Jewish authorities to the south (Judea) were put out by Jesus’ claims of God coming to reign. Jesus did not behave, as they expected the Messiah to conduct himself. They began to see Jesus as a political threat to their own positions, and they interpreted this to be a political threat to Rome, which if true, and Pilate heard of it, might very well destroy Jerusalem and its Temple (John 11:45-48). The operative theme, here, is the Jewish authorities were afraid, Jesus’ Gospel would replace them with himself and his disciples. Calling this seditious appealed to their interests of self-preservation. Therefore, they accused Jesus of seditious acts, once they brought him to Pilate (Luke 23:1-2). Nevertheless, after interrogating Jesus and hearing that his Kingdom was not political, vis-à-vis “not of this world” (John 18:36-38), Pilate found Jesus innocent of the charges laid upon him by the Jewish authorities.
Moreover, when Herod Antipas of Galilee, first heard of Jesus, he sought to see him, probably because he had beheaded John the Baptizer recently and suspected Jesus of rallying the crowds against him. Nevertheless, since Jesus quashed any political uprising of the people to make him king instead of Herod’s tetrarchy (John 6:14-15, 60-66), it seems any political threat Herod may have suspected vanished, because Jesus was never seized by any of his men. Moreover, Herod’s supporters, the Herodians, who were often used by the Jewish authorities to rid themselves of whomsoever, they held to be an enemy (cp. Mark 3:6; 12:13; Matthew 22:16), were unable to pin anything on Jesus that could be understood as a threat to Herod’s authority. So, only the Jewish authorities in Judea believed that Jesus was a political threat to Herod and ultimately to Rome.
Therefore, Jesus’ campaign as Messiah, wherever we might understand it to have begun, while it may have been understood to be a political campaign by the Jews and their authorities in Judea, it was not so interpreted by either Rome or Herod. Moreover, the Jewish authorities’ opinion of Jesus and their understanding of the claims of his Gospel is suspect, due to their jealousy of Jesus’ influence with the people. They claimed, Jesus was seeking to replace them and their positions of authority with himself and his disciples, vis-à-vis a sedition. Nevertheless, they could never prove their claims, because they couldn’t catch him in his words, as he taught the people about his Gospel of the Kingdom of God. They looked for a physical, political threat, something like what the Trump supporters tried to do on January 6 2021, but Jesus claimed that the Kingdom of God was within man (Luke 17:21).
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[1] Although I’m following Dr. Wright’s book, at times I take a different, even an opposing, point of view of the events he brings up in Simply Jesus. Most often, I agree with Dr. Wright’s approach and merely quote him or interpret his words with my own. My readers should be aware of this and understand Dr. Wright will not always agree with how I have explained the events, he records in his book.
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