Jesus made political, religious leaders very sad

[struggle4progress]

Doug Mendenhall
Friday, April 10, 2009
Huntsville Times

... Ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, giving advance notice so that plenty of people are on hand to whoop it up ... Jesus heads straight for the temple and thrashes the moneychangers, leaving all of the temple officials simmering ... Back at the temple the next morning, Jesus tells provocative stories about people God loves being beaten and killed ... The Pharisees try to trick Jesus into saying something controversial enough that they can bring charges, but Jesus stumps them ... To fill in the silence and pour gasoline on these hotheads, Jesus turns right around and lists seven things he hates about them - "sons of hell," "blind guides," "whitewashed tombs," "murderers" and "snakes" are among his choicest words ... Not surprisingly, those leaders met up at the high priest's palace and decided Jesus would have to be killed ... http://www.al.com/religion/huntsvilletimes/dmendenhall.ssf?/base/living/123935492842100.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

[ashling]

1. And if he tried it today?

… If Jesus tried to bring a real democracy to America in the year of our Lord 1940, Jesus would not die on the Cross a second time. No, the capitalist with capital and the capitalist without capital would lynch Jesus before He could get to the Cross.

From Melvin B. Tolson, Caviar and Cabbage: Selected Columns by Melvin B. Tolson from the Washington Tribune, 1937-1944, ed. Robert M. Farnsworth (Columbia: U Missouri P, 1982), 90-92.