“I want him to be here when I return because he is to important to put at risk”.
It is a foregone conclusion therefore that all genuine Jews or rather Judeans, would have been easy to manipulate against him, by the wily priests, even for just the single abandonment of traditional circumcision. They could however only do it by accusation of subversive activity against Judean principles – making him an enemy of the people. Previously they had found it too difficult to insert a wedge between him and his large following who saw him as a very learned and holy man. Jesus, however, was indeed doing what he said he would – not destroying the Temple, but rebuilding it. He was shaking the whole Judean religious foundation by its roots and if we care to examine him a little closer, we find that to him the Temple was in the heart not on the ground and with this in mind he sought to woo the remnants of the ancient tribes scattered over a very wide area indeed. In fact, the beginnings of this strange “Religion”, sees it in active communication through Paul with areas in Egypt, Anatolia and even Britain, where the scattered tribes had proliferated and identified themselves with local cults. The success of this binding mission involving the good news that the Messiah and come, died and risen to atone for all, fed on the nostalgia and ancestral memories which most of these peoples enjoyed. Without a common heritage, there would not have been a platform on which to built this extraordinary reconstruction of ancient Israel. The factor that comes to light immediately has to be reiterated, is that it is not Jewish. Further evidence to that effect will become obvious as the scene unfold.
A presence for the job.
Jesus was the sort