narrative of this event and to note the disturbing notion that most people see in the texts what they are expected to see, despite the wording making it all extremely clear. Herod would have never sent Jesus to his death and Pilate would have never been driven to torturing him unless it was all part of a very clever and stage managed exercise. Jesus we must remember, endorsed Roman taxation “give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar”. The priests would have wanted to trap him into making a political statement and get him arrested, but the people listening would have seen it as the baiting of a holy man by priests whom they themselves probably also found sterile and pompous. In other words, Jesus was a practical and experienced political thinker and he was obviously learned enough to appreciate the reality and nature of what he was leading himself to. He had nothing against the Greek or Roman occupiers for the simple reason that he had little faith in the ability of the vast population under their control to shake them off or govern with enough authority to prevent constant bloodshed. He was also troubled about the arrogant and obviously devious conspiracies of the ruling Judaic priesthood, living on cushy earnings and guaranteed Roman protection. Even the supreme authority – Herod – was a Roman puppet and astonishingly, the pagan builder of a Jewish Temple. He was, we must remember, an Idumean and possibly an Amorite – a people from Petra who had once challenged Judea. Nothing seems to make sense and we see a determined move forward by a Jesus who could very easily have worked it all out, as a last desperate move to undermine the Judean Authorities. It could have been a brave gesture of self sacrifice to make them pay for the tacit enslavement
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