Jesus Christ Superstar

In one scene of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus stands in the middle of a fanatical crowd deeply and loudly devoted to him. Peter sees this as an opportunity and shrewdly informs Jesus that:

There must be over 50,000 people screaming love and more for you. Every one of them would do whatever you ask of them. Keep them yelling their devotion but add a touch of hate for Rome. You will rise to a greater power, and we will win ourselves a home. You’ll get the power and the glory, forever and ever and ever!

The musical accurately portrayed Jesus as refusing to cultivate hatred for Rome. We know that when Jesus was arrested, “Simon Peter drew a sword and sliced off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave” (Jn 18:10). But the accuracy of Peter’s portrayal is debatable. Like most Jews, he was not a fan of Rome. Yet scholars debate whether Simon’s zeal was to protect Jesus or the zeal of a violent revolutionary who sought to forcefully expel the Roman forces that occupied Judea and Galilee. The show correctly showed that Jesus was the Messiah who refused to use his popularity and power to lead a violent revolution. Jesus consistently taught and demonstrated that the Kingdom of God cannot be established through violence or politics.

Jesus in the First Century Context

Our era has much in common with first century Palestine where Jesus lived and ministered. The political and social landscape of Palestine was polarized and characterized by distrust and suspicion between Jews, Gentiles, Romans, and Samaritans. It was a political tinderbox. Pax Romana (the peace of Rome) was imposed and sustained through the armies of the empire. The financial cost of the occupying forces enforcing the fragile peace was paid by those they oppressed through excessive taxation. Over the decades of Roman rule, thousands of patriots (religiously motivated zealots) who hated their Roman oppressors had violently resisted their oppressors. Countless numbers of them were crucified and left hanging on crosses across the land to discourage insurrection. The social and economic injustice and the hatred it fostered were the primary ingredients in an incendiary recipe waiting to be ignited. A single spark could trigger a rebellion with devastating consequences.

In A.D. 70 (approximately 35 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection) another Jewish insurrection became the spark which ignited a devastating explosion (previously there had been multiple rebellions). But in A.D. 70, the full might of Rome was released against the tiny district of Judea. As Jesus had predicted (Matt 24:1-51), they crushed the Jews without mercy, destroying Jerusalem and the temple. The residents of Judea and Jerusalem were annihilated. Not a single living Jew was left in Jerusalem and the city itself was left in ruins, uninhabitable. Pax Romana brought order or “peace” through utter destruction, a holocaust.

That happened just a few decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection. However, shortly before Jesus’ birth, a man known as Judas the Galilean, led an uprising against the Roman rulers in Galilee. Judas’ ragtag army rebelled because of excessive taxation that left many destitute. Even worse, in their minds, was paying those taxes to Rome meant Caesar was their king. Their motto was “No king but God!”. The Jews resented Roman rule with its puppet kings who appointed the Jewish high priest, and the humiliation of being dominated by yet another pagan oppressor of which Rome was but the latest of many (“When Violent Nationalism Backfired for God’s People,” Christianity Today, by Michael Bird, February 16, 2021). 

The Galilean insurrection was crushed when Varus arrived with his powerful legions who slaughtered the rebels and destroyed the city of Sepphoris, which was only a few miles north of the village of Nazareth. The city’s residents became Roman slaves. Jesus grew up amid this desolation and may have visited the physical rubble merely a few miles from his home in Nazareth. He must have listened to the traumatic stories of Roman violence from those who had survived it.

Violent incidents between the Roman oppressors and combative Jews were not uncommon during the next 60 years. Not surprisingly, during this time, many people were eagerly waiting for the promised Messiah to rescue Israel (Luke 2:25), including the two men walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:21) on Easter afternoon. According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, many Jews were inspired by an “ambiguous oracle” from their Scriptures about a ruler rising up from their land to defeat the Romans and dominate the East (a messianic prophecy). Thus, the social and political situation in Palestine throughout Jesus’ lifetime, was characterized by discontent, distrust, disagreement, division, and danger.

The Major Factions in the Drama

There were three primary Jewish factions during Jesus’ ministry. Each had its own view of how to establish the Kingdom of God. The Pharisees sought to obey the OT laws, a sort of back-to-basics approach, with special emphasis on purity and piety as the way to bring national deliverance. The Sadducees took a more practical approach and sought to collaborate with the Romans. It was a “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach. The third group was the sect known as the Essenes who sought spiritual purity by separating themselves. They withdrew to the wilderness of Qumran (near the Dead Sea). Theirs was an escapist approach. The fourth faction were the zealots, who were committed to overthrowing the Romans by any means, including violence. Their approach, according to Bird, was to have a Torah (OT Law) in one hand and a sword in another. Their approach was confrontation, using guerrilla warfare and armed resistance. Perhaps this could be termed the holy war approach, fighting for God and freedom.

Jesus’ group of twelve disciples contained a tax collector, which made him a collaborator with the Romans, and Zealots, who advocated killing the Romans. Thus, both the macro political landscape of Palestine and micro dynamics in those he called to be his disciples included conflicting approaches. Trust must have been a rare commodity in first century Palestine, just as it is today.

Jesus navigated these treacherous waters continuously throughout his ministry. The more popular he became, the greater the threat he posed to the Romans and the religious leaders. This was particularly true because of the Jewish expectation, especially among the masses, that the Messiah (translated as Christ in the Greek NT) would restore the glory and independence they had enjoyed during the reign of King David (a thousand years before Jesus). 

Expectations

Jesus, when asked about paying taxes to Caesar, literally could have caused blood to run in the streets if he had responded carelessly. Or the enthusiasm of the crowds after witnessing miracles could easily have gone sideways: “When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself” (Jn 6:15). One misstep by Jesus could have triggered a bloody rebellion by the Jews and a devastating response by the Romans. Jesus walked a very thin line between opposing factions throughout his ministry. Amazingly, he did this without compromising the truth, seeking to appease his critics, or avoiding confrontation until he was crucified. I consider the way Jesus seamlessly combined love and truth, justice and mercy, as well as humility and confrontation, to be an astonishing accomplishment. His integrity was remarkable (which is a defining component in the Jesus Way). 

Jews that knew God’s promised Messiah would be a descendent of King David, the most famous and beloved King in Israel’s history. David’s reign lasted forty years. He was a great leader who had gone all-in for the LORD. David also was a heroic warrior who led the armies of Israel to victory in battle after battle. When he was still an adolescent, David had killed the giant, Goliath, who had been terrorizing Israel’s army, with only a slingshot. His victories and heroics were legendary. By the time of Jesus, a thousand years later, many ordinary Jews associated the promised Messiah with David, and naturally expected him to crush the hated Roman army and to restore the Davidic dynasty by becoming their king. In short, people expected the Messiah to be a warrior and king who would save Israel from their enemies, not from their sins. This misunderstanding of the Messiah’s mission made Jesus’ mission even more difficult and dangerous to the oppressed people of Palestine. They correctly interpreted his miracles as proof that he was the Messiah but misunderstood the role of the promised Messiah. They mistakenly associated Messiah with another Davidic type of Kingdom with a warrior king, instead of the eternal and peaceful Kingdom of God.

After Jesus’ ascension, his disciples also ministered in many dangerous and conflicted contexts. Peter and John were arrested and stood before the same Jewish high council that had acted like a lynch mob seeking Jesus’ blood, not a court seeking justice (Acts 5:1-22). Paul also faced violent mobs (2 Cor 11:4-29) and encountered impossibly complex circumstances involving conspiracies, politics, and corruption (Acts 21:26-24:27). Like Jesus, they faced hostility, hatred, and violence. They, like Jesus, walked a thin line knowing that a misstep could ignite a spark and trigger a catastrophe. That thin line they all walked is the Jesus Way.

Summary

There are many parallels between first-century Palestine and twenty-first century America. In the first century, Jesus’ teaching addressed the people’s mistaken expectations and revealed his true mission. This teaching was difficult for his first century audience to grasp as well as his twenty-first century audience. His teaching was counter-cultural, fostering love—not hatred, and requiring deep trust. Following Jesus required one’s ultimate loyalty be to an invisible Kingdom. His Kingdom is characterized by love, truth, peace, justice, wisdom, and joy, rather than conflict, selfishness, and lies. Jesus also taught that his invisible Kingdom would one day become visible and tangible when history (his-story) is consummated, and he returns at an unknown date in the future. At that time, his there-and-then Kingdom will become his here-and-now Kingdom and he will reign forever and ever. 

Since we are apprentices of Jesus in Kingdom living, we are learning to live here and now in ways that will become the norm there-and-then. Even in this confusing and conflicted time in which we live, we choose to live by Kingdom standards (Kingdom living) as followers of the coming and ultimate King, who we call Jesus. Kingdom living is living under Jesus’ authority, which means living in ways that God planned when he created humanity. At that time, God will elevate Jesus to the place of “highest honor” and “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11). In the meantime, wise and courageous faith is required.

THINKING IT THROUGH

The paths of the LORD are true and right, 
and righteous people live by walking in them. 
Hosea 14:9b

THE TRUTH: Jesus responded to opposition, rejection, and hatred with wisdom, truth, courage, grace, and love. 

THE CHALLENGE: Disciples seek to respond to opposition, rejection, and hatred with wisdom, truth, courage, grace, and love. 

The Scriptures, questions, and notes are for group discussion and personal reflection. Our goal in Tier II is character transformation which requires sustained effort and growing faith. Thinking through the questions can help you understand this challenge at a deeper level. We encourage you to focus on those questions that you find most interesting or helpful. This is not a test, but a tool to help you respond to the challenges.

Related Scriptures 

Luke 20:1-8 ¹ One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. ² “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?” ³ He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: ⁴ John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?” ⁵ They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from. ⁸ Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Luke 20:19-26 ¹⁹ The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. ²⁰ Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. ²¹ So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²² Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” ²³ He saw through their duplicity and said to them, ²⁴ “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. ²⁵ He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” ²⁶ They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

Luke 23:1-5 ¹ Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. ² And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.” ³ So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. ⁴ Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” ⁵ But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

John 8:1-11 ¹ Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, ² but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. ³ As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. ⁴ “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” ⁶ They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. ⁹ When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” ¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

John 2:13-22 ¹³ It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. ¹⁵ Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. ¹⁶ Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” ¹⁷ Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” 
¹⁸ But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” ¹⁹ “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” ²¹ But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.

Matthew 12:9-14 ⁹ Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, ¹⁰ where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.) ¹¹ And he answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. ¹² And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.” ¹³ Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored, just like the other one! ¹⁴ Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus.

Matthew 4:25 ²⁵ Large crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

Mark 3:8b ⁸ The news about his miracles had spread far and wide and vast numbers of people came to see him. 

Matthew 7:6 ⁶ “Don’t give what is sacred to the dogs. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.”

Mark 3:20-22 ²⁰ One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. ²¹ When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.
²² But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by Satan, the prince of demons. That’s where he gets the power to cast out demons.”

Matthew 10:16 ¹⁶ “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.”

Matthew 9:36 ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

John 6:14-15 ¹⁴ When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” ¹⁵ When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

Questions

You are encouraged to use these questions for group discussion or personal reflection. Respond to the questions that are most relevant or interesting to you (I urge you to write your responses in a journal or notebook).

1. Find and cite another passage in the gospels, not yet mentioned in Part A, that showed that Jesus walked a thin line knowing that a misstep could trigger a riot, his premature arrest, or an overreaction from the Romans. 

2. Find and cite another passage in which Jesus spoke strong words of disapproval or even judgment. To whom did he speak those strong words and why?

3. What is the meaning of “I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves?” (Matthew 10:16).

4. Can you recall a time or incident when Jesus was like a sheep among wolves and demonstrated both shrewdness and dove-like harmlessness? 

5. Do you see any hint of passivity (ignoring evil) or fear in Jesus as he ministered in first century Palestine? If so, explain your answer.

6. What most impresses you about Jesus and how he managed his words and actions in his first century context?

7. What similarities do you see between his first century context and our twenty-first century context?

8. Reread John 2:13-23 (John’s account of Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple) and make a list of what impressed you about Jesus, a second list of what surprised you, and a third list of questions it raised in your mind. Do you think Jesus had planned to do this in advance or was it a spontaneous reaction?

9. The scriptures clearly show that the religious leaders, particularly the Pharisees, conspired against Jesus. They sent spies to act as if they were sincere followers of Jesus to ask trick questions that would force him to either incriminate himself as an agitator against Rome or a pseudo-Jewish rabbi who broke God’s laws. Pick a story of Jesus responding to trick questions and explain what impresses you the most about the way that Jesus responded.

10. Can you think of a time when Jesus compromised truth in any way when facing a loaded question or accusation? If so, cite where you found it and why way you believe Jesus compromised the truth.

11. In Challenge 7 (“Dare to Be Different”), Part A (“Holiness”) stated, “Holiness is a comprehensive term describing everything God is” and that “The sum of all of God’s attributes equals God’s holiness.” If this is so, is the truth that “JESUS RESPONDED TO OPPOSITION, REJECTION, AND HATRED WITH WISDOM TRUTH, COURAGE, GRACE, AND LOVE an expression of his holiness? Why or why not?

Copyright © 2024 Don Waite

All rights reserved.

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