Jesus is betrayed by Judas (Iscariot) & Arrested by Roman Guards in the Garden of Olive

 What would Jesus say or do, where He to return to this world today? Would we know if He were to be walking among us now? What would happen to Christ if He were to return to this world and preach the same teachings against injustice, wickedness, oppression, greed, and corruption? Would He be crucified (let us say imprisoned or even put to death) all over again? 

Former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate,  Nelson Mandala, who has always been known to be a pacifist, advocating non-violent descent against the White oppressive minority government in South Africa under the system of Apartheid, was imprisoned for 25 years. President Reagan used to refer to him as a terrorist. And Mandela is only one example of individuals who continue risking their lives all over the world today in a constant struggle against social, political, and economic injustice.

Jesus’ mission on earth was simple; His teaching was direct, and at time edgy, and could be summarized as follows:

     1. He was The Son of God, will die, and will rise from the dead and ascend to heaven where he would live as One with            The Father in The Unity of the Holy Spirit

     2. He came to renew the covenant with a message of hope, salvation, and of eternal life. To accomplish this,

        Jesus updated the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and taught them to his crowd

         of followers in the Sermon on the Mound in the form of the eight Beatitudes. For examples, while the First                            Commandment orders men "I am the Lord, your God, Thou shall have no other gods before me," in the                                    corresponding Beatitude, Jesus told the crowd, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of 

         heaven." similarly, Jesus renewed the Golden Rule, "Do onto to others as you would have them do onto you," 

         by teaching to "love your neighborhood like you love yourself."

     3. The righteous will (shall) inherit the (land) Kingdom of Heaven

     4. The wicked must change their ways, and because “The Father” is all forgiving, they will be forgiven if they chose to              live in righteousness.

     5. Man should serve The Lord rather than serving men and things.

     6. We should be merciful, peacemakers, and should comfort those need comforting, and stand up against unfairness                  and injustice.

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Following a day of prayer, Jesus came to his followers and picked 12 among to be his disciples (his apprentices).Having predicted his own fate, in order to ensure "the Word of His Father" reaches the people of the world for generations to come, Jesus passed his teachings and message onto the 12. And  before his death, he commissioned them as Apostles (messengers of Good News or "the Gospel"). The 12 original Apostles were Simon - the fisherman, to whom Jesus gave the name Peter, and later, before his death, named the Head of His Church ” Among the others were Jesus' brothers James and Andrew, Judas (Jude), Philip, John, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew,James (the son of Alpheus), Simon “The Zealot, and Judas Iscariot known for betraying Jesus by turning him to the Romans for some pieces of Gold.

Jesus chose to teach his message through story-telling and by examples. To illustrate his teaching about loving your neighbor as you love yourself, Jesus told the story of the businessman from Somaria who found the sick and helpless man lying on the road. And unlike all the travelers who passed the man earlier and continued on their way without trying to help, this man who became know as the Good Samaritan, stopped and tried to help by giving the man water and assistance.However, when his first aid effort failed to work, the Samaritan went further to put the man on his horse and took him to an Inn where he paid to have the man cared for before he went on to finish the rest of his journey. He accumulated no wealth. He healed the sick, raised people from the dead, and when needed, he walked on water, and turned it into wine. But based on his conviction in his own message and by the courage of his conviction, Jesus also took very strong stands against the powerful and the establishment, which ultimately led to his crucifixion. One must wonder what might have been done to Jesus, were he to return and renew his mission in today’s world. Around the world today, government of all kinds, from empires like Rome to totalitarian regimes, such as Russia and China, to dictatorship sand so-called democracy, all, have used demoralization to oppress and even kill people who, at their own risks and peril, denounce the status quo, and stand up against social unfairness, injustice, and corruption. Jesus was crucified for engaging in exactly those types of activities. He was teaching the less-powerful and the disenfranchised about God’s plan of salvation and eternal life for them. But in doing so, his message exposed the injustices that the power-base and the rich and the influential were perpetuating upon the people. In addition, what was even more threatening to governors, leaders, and elders, was that the crowd of Jesus’ followers was growing larger every day, because the people heard his message, saw his Godly nature, and wanted to follow his teachings. What would be done to him today - would he have been designated an agitator? Would he have been considered an anarchist who brought with him a procession of followers triumphantly into Jerusalem, when he knew what was waiting there for him, since his message has turned the Jewish establishment against him and made the Roman power base nervous? Or might Jesus have been called a radical terrorist for doing today exactly what he did 2013 year ago? For there is no suffering, injustice, and oppression, or wickedness that existed in Jesus’ time, that is not at least exponentially worse, or more prevalent and insidious in today’s society.

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Believing with conviction and faith in what he was teaching, Jesus was defiant to the point where when he was brought before Pontiff Pilate, he was offered what might have been the first plea deal in the history of “injustice systems.” Knowing that Jesus committed no crime for which he should be put to death, Pilate offered Jesus to make what would have amounted to a false confession. He told Jesus to admit that he really was not the Messiah, the Son of God that he had been proclaiming to be. For all we now know, this could have just been a trick to humiliate Jesus, destroy his credibility among his followers, and then still put him to death anyway. But Jesus literally signed his own death warrant by rejecting Pilate’s plea offer.

Pontiff Pilate Stands in Judgement of Jesus 

Photo_Source_CC                                                                         

Pilate tried a different trick. Since the tradition at the time was to offer the crowd to pick a prisoner to pardon before the routine execution by crucifixion during the feast of Passover, the Pontiff asked the crowd to choose between the known criminal, Barabbas, and the accused criminal Jesus Christ. But the Chief Priests and the Jewish Elders persuaded the crowd to ask for the release of the known criminal, Barabbas. Pilate’s motivation and strategy were two-fold. Politically, he was seeking to appease the crowd, but during his judgment of Jesus, his wife had sent him a message that she could not sleep all night the previous night because she was having visions that she was being judged because they were about to crucify a righteous man, meaning Jesus Christ.  (Matthew 17: 15-13). At the end, Pilate was driven to do the political thing under pressure from the governors and the crowd, which had been brainwashed by the propaganda against Jesus. Who might we be propagandizing today and demonizing for the purpose of unfairly targeting them for oppression, harsh treatment, and death? We must consider this question, given that political motivation, and tactics, corruption of power, and the imprisonment and execution of people based on their message rather than criminal act, have not changed since they days of Jesus.

We also know that Jesus has shown anger and took strong stands against acts of injustice and corruption. He did not hesitate and spontaneously intervene when the crow was getting ready to stone Mary Magdalene to death for reasons that are at best despicable. He walked among the sick, the poor, and the broken hear-ted. In fact, biblical records show that in the Temple alone, Jesus showed great anger on three separate occasions.  For examples, we know from John 2:16 that Jesus flew into a rage at the Temple of Jerusalem and called the men cheats, and thieves, and overturned tables. The Temple was and still is a holy place in Jerusalem where people would travel very far to pray. But the Jews divided the Temple into two areas, and open one of those areas to non-Jews who were then allowed to set tables and sell goods in a market-like setting.  This part of the Temple was called “The court of the Gentiles” and was outside the main part of the Temple. In the main part of the Temple, only Jews were allowed. The problem was that the people in authority retained the power to provide birds and other animals for “sacrifice,” while the people could not bring their own. This established a system whereby people were required to exchange their own money into the special Temple money, which they needed in order to purchase what they needed. In the eyes of Jesus, those who worked on these money exchange and exploitation tables had compromised the primary function of worship of the Temple, which he called “My Father’s House” and caused those who had been given stewardship over the Temple to lose their way.

The parallels, today, of the influential and the powerful abusing the trust and the very power that they derive from the people to cheat, and steal, and oppressed the less-powerful, are astounding.  First, let us establish that oppression does not only come in the form of chains. Government, and commercial and special interest groups can, and do, either jointly or independently, use their influence to oppress society or groups of people, by erecting economic barriers and other obstacles to upward mobility, by passing unjust laws, and implementing oppressive social policies. We know that when Jesus became angry in the Temple, on one of those three occasions, he called the leaders of the Jewish spiritual groups that boasted to practice the laws of Moses, ''Pharisees.” The word stands for ''separate,” but it has come to symbolize hypocrites who blatantly betray every principle they claim to stand on. Who are the Pharisees of today? Are they the so-called Christians who are demanding a stop to anything that can help the poor, the disabled, children, and those who have been systematically marginalized and kept outside of the framework of the social contract?  In very recent days, video recordings have been televised showing people who consider themselves “Christians,”  saying things like, “People who don’t work are lazy;” “If you don’t work, you shouldn't eat.”  And we are all aware of former Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, talking about his so-called 47%, saying, “I can’t worry about those people; they refuse to help themselves.”

Jesus preached a message of peace. However, he did not parse his words; He was direct, and sometimes even inflammatory. When a rich man made his way through the crow and asked Jesus, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”  Jesus told him to follow the commandments. But the man continued to inquire, and Jesus told him to “sell all your worldly possession and give to the poor…” And then, Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Clearly Jesus was speaking in parables, which was one of his teaching styles, but what he really meant was that wealth is an earthly and material possession that has no relevance in life as a continuum, unless such wealth is used to contribute to fulfill God’s Will.  Everyone has the right to believe in anything they want. But our life on earth is a short journey, most of which is an illusion. Eternity, on the other hand, is a long time. Nonetheless, since some people have a hard time believing in things they cannot experience in the present, we can at least make a few non-prophecies prophecies.  For examples, we can make a prophecy with 100% accuracy that nobody will be called king, Sir, boss, or any such thing outside of this physical sphere. We can also safely make a prophecy that the Trump Tower will not be hooked behind Donald Trump’s hearse and dragged to be left with him wherever they might be taking him after he is gone. And our final prophecy is that none of the world’s millionaires and billionaires will have their money packed up and buried with them. So, perhaps, there is something to this eternity thing, and should that be the case, it would make sense to take the side of caution and live by those basic principles that were left for us. No one will be able to plead ignorance, or claim any exceptions. We have been forewarned. The words have not only been  written, the message has also been widely disseminated through a variety of channels and by all means of communication available to mankind.

We now live in the year 2013 A.D. (Anno Domini  or the Year of the Lord, starting with year 1 of the birth of Jesus Christ), about 1,980 years from the year of his death. During the BC period, there were no instant cameras, no surveillance camera, no cell phone cameras. therefore,it is safe to assume that no picture of Jesus was ever taken, and no portrait of him is known to have been drawn. There is the story about the Holy Grail, but its origin remains inconclusive. Due to the unavailability of graphic images depicting Jesus in his time, artists have agreed in the ways in which they have represented the various stories of Jesus, but the lack of visual documentation is reflected in the various artistic depictions. Here are a sample of how three different artists represented the Ascension of Jesus.

         Photo_testimoniesoftheavenandhell.com     Photo_lcrawfords-manymansions.com       Photo_flickr.com               

  Here is the Franciscans' vow by Which they Live

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