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By Craig Andresen – Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

It’s tough, you know?

Not mixing politics and religion.

They, whoever “they” are, say you shouldn’t. At least not in polite company but, we’ve always been polite to one another haven’t we?

What makes the old adage so hard to adhere to, at least for me, as that we may never have had Easter Sunday were it not for politics.

Allow me to explain.

Jesus was a complex man who led a simple life.

He didn’t ask for fame or notice but he did reluctantly accept both. Well, at least to some extent. He knew that wherever he went, he would draw a crowd but he always managed to make the Father the focus of the message.

Shepard. Carpenter. Teacher. Traveler. He didn’t have nor did he want the riches of man. He had faith and that was more than enough.

One thing Jesus was NOT was ostentatious.

Well…

He wasn’t until the very end anyway.

On what we now refer to as Palm Sunday…Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and THAT is where the politics started.

It had been said that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem that way and, by doing so, Jesus KNEW it would cause a stir. He KNEW it would be noticed and, he KNEW all eyes would be on HIM.

An ostentatious beginning to the end which would lead to a new beginning.

Once Jesus had the attention of the politicians of the day, both Jewish and Roman, he made SURE none of them would refocus on something else.

He raised a ruckus in the temple. Turning over tables, scattering money from the money changers and reading them the Holy riot act.

They, the politicians, clearly noticed. BOY did they notice.

The politics of the day had everyone on edge. Jews were afraid of repercussions should trouble break out. It had happened before and Jews paid for it with their lives. The Romans were ALWAYS looking for a reason or an excuse to hold the Jews accountable for SOMETHING and to have this many, all in one place meant that they, the Romans, would have to be extra strict to keep the Jews in their place.

In order for the Jews to keep the Romans at bay, THEY would have to take steps to stop the trouble before the Romans decided to do it.

Jesus…HE was the one…the ONE…causing the uproar and it was clear that he would not stop unless he was stopped.

The notion to arrest Jesus was the idea of Caiaphas and HE deemed it necessary to quell the Roman tempers. Caiaphas didn’t want trouble. Certainly not the sort of trouble there had been before and the idea of turning Jesus over to the Romans was a sort of…Peace offering. One man…for the lives of many.

How fortuitous.

How…Prophetic.

How…Political.

Would Judas have done what he did were it not for being paid to become the political ally of Caiaphas?

Does it matter?

Politics hasn’t really changed all that much in 2000 years has it? 30 pieces of silver was all it took and it ruined Judas.

What sort of politician was Caiaphas?

He was a Jewish High priest and a member of the party of the Sadducees and the son-in-law of Annas, a previous high priest who had also succeeded in placing several of his own sons in the office.

Ahhh…Political nepotism.

Caiaphas’ political strong suit was his skill in pleasing his Roman overlords while maintaining a degree of order among the various religious factions in Jerusalem. A sort of political glad-hander.

In the dark of a Thursday night, Caiaphas  judged Jesus found him guilty and passed sentence before anyone really knew what was happening. He had to pass the sentence before anyone could know what it entailed.

Because religion prohibited the Jews from carrying out the sentence in a timely fashion, Caiaphas, as another way to placate the Romans, sent the case to Pilate.

Pilate, a politician in his own right, the Prefect or…Procurator…Pontius Pilate was the Governor of Judaea, charged with collecting Ceaser’s taxes and passing Roman judgment.

Pilate decided Jesus, a Jew, being from Galilee, was indeed from Herod’s district and…sent him back TO Herod.

In reality, Herod wanted nothing to do with it and try as he might, he just couldn’t get Caiaphas to do his own dirty work.

It was a political minefield and Herod KNEW it. Herod, simply refused to be mixed up in what could lead to great unrest thus putting his OWN career at risk and Jesus was a Jew. He was the Jew’s problem but… Caiaphas insisted Pilate, the Governor, handle the legal politics of it and in doing so, he may well have thought he would somehow please Rome in the process while not drawing the ire of his fellow Jews.

In political terms, Herod was placating one special interest group while providing for himself, plausible deniability from another.

Pilate, really wanting nothing more to do with it than did Herod, offered the crowd a choice and then…Ordered that the sentence imposed by the Jews be carried out and then…Washed his hands of it altogether.

NOBODY, it seems, wanted the political fallout from this.

Caiaphas was trying to make a politically  preemptive strike. Herod felt like a political football, caught in the middle of something he believed was no big deal. Pilate tried to shift the political blame back to Herod and then, to the crowd of Jews who were, themselves, trying to get on Rome’s good side by turning over who THEY thought would be the cause retaliation against THEM..

Jesus was flogged to within inches of his life, paraded through the streets…Made to carry his own cross to the site of his crucifixion. It wasn’t until this point when some in the crowd who had called for the death of Jesus realized what was really happening.

Judas among them.

Yes, there are some who, to this day, hold the Jews responsible and hold it against them though, for the very life of me I don’t understand why.

They HAD to do what they did. It was preordained. It had been written.

Jesus knew it too or he wouldn’t have caused the scene in the temple nor would he have made the ostentatious decision to enter Jerusalem as he did.

Jesus, I think, also knew that throughout the 3 years of his travels and teachings, he had yet to truly reach the 12 who were with him. Oh sure, they had seen the miracles but, they didn’t really understand or see the BIG picture…Did they?

It would take a culmination of all they had been told, before they REALLY believed.

Jesus knew that before he told Judas to “Go, do what you must and, do it quickly,” and before Jesus made HIMSELF so available and easy to find in the garden.

It wasn’t the crowd’s fault that the beaten and bloodied man was being nailed to the cross. It wasn’t Judas’ fault either.

Peter denied Jesus 3 times but, none of this was on him.

Herod?

Caiaphas?

No. They can’t be held to account either.

In fact, had not every one of them done what they were apparently predestined to do, we wouldn’t have Easter today. Hold the Jews responsible? Okay, but to what extent? That Jesus himself was a Jew?  CELEBRATE their actions. What might have happened had THEY said to Pilate…”TAKE BARABBAS and FREE JESUS?”

Think about that.

Good Friday…That wasn’t ANYBODY’S fault…THAT was GOD’S…Plan.

Even as the skies darkened in the middle of the day and the ground shook, the Romans knew this was unlike anything else they had ever seen and they knew that nothing would be the same again. In Matthew 27:54 we read, “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.”

Then, it was done. Jesus was dead. It was all over or so they thought and, in an act of political compromise, the Jews were allowed by the Romans to remove the body from the cross and entomb it before the Sabbath began as was their religious custom.

But, it wasn’t over. Far from it.

On Sunday, the women went to finish what they didn’t have time to do on Friday. They needed to anoint the body but, when they arrived at the tomb, the stone had been rolled away and, it was empty.

Someone, they thought, had stolen the body of Jesus.

They were told by someone that Jesus was not there and suddenly, they realized that they were looking into the eyes of Him. Jesus. He was alive. HE was the someone who told them that Jesus was not there.

HE WAS ALIVE!!!!!

They had seen him die. They had seen him in the tomb.

And now…HE was RISEN. Just as he had told them it would be…It was.

Being a Christian means having faith and part of that faith is that, I believe, those who have different faiths will also find the afterlife their religions foretell. Buddhists …Sikhs…My Jewish brothers and sisters…All the true religions have one thing in common…FAITH.

It is, for me…Impossible to believe that an omniscient God wouldn’t tailor faith to a vast demographic of different cultures and wouldn’t open the gates of heaven as quickly for them as for Christians. To believe otherwise would be to preclude any who left THIS life BEFORE the life and death of Jesus from being in heaven.

But where’s the proof that any of this actually happened?

It seems the only bit of forensic evidence might well be the Shroud of Turin, and while investigations of that piece of linen have been complicated by both time, and politics, there is a face depicted on it, as well as the body of a man depicted who was apparently crucified. The image of the man is compelling, haunting, and intriguing. Below is what scientists believe the face of Jesus would have looked like, based on the Shroud of Turin. To see how this face was rendered, watch the video.

The face from the Shroud looks quite different from the portrayals of Jesus we see in paintings, and there is good reason for that. The paintings come from or are based on European artists concepts of Jesus, and show what looks to be a European man.

Jesus was not European. He was Jewish…a man from the Middle East. Jesus, had he looked as the European artists portrayed him would have stood out in a crowd, and Jesus didn’t.

We know this to be true, as per the story from the Bible. Had Jesus stood out in a crowd, there would have been no need for Judas to identify him to the Romans with a kiss. The Romans would have immediately seized the man who looked vastly different from the rest in the Garden that night…but even in a crowd of 12 men, Jesus didn’t stand out. He had to have looked like any other man from the region.

So…Easter.

A new beginning.

But…It took politics to bring about the end which led to the new beginning. Didn’t it?

So…Don’t mix politics and religion? Not in polite company? I submit that one can’t really understand the Easter story without doing so.

Happy Easter.

© Craig Andresen/thenationalpatriot.com 2013