Death of a revolutionary

The other day Norm Pattis wrote a blawg post asking who Jesus and Socrates were. I would answer that Jesus was a revolutionary who was killed because he represented a threat to the state.

If you read the Gospel of John you will find that the Roman governor, Pilate, had no desire to execute Jesus. That demand came from the Jewish high priests. But why?
The high priests were in the position at the pleasure of their Roman overlords. Much like the English colonialists, the Romans were content to allow the Jews some autonomy, provided there was some structure to "keep them in their place." The high priests had no tolerance for anyone who questioned the existing order.

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. -- John 18:37-38

The high priests were in the position at the pleasure of their Roman overlords. Much like the English colonialists, the Romans were content to allow the Jews some autonomy, provided there was some structure to "keep them in their place." The high priests had no tolerance for anyone who questioned the existing order.

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” -- John 19:4-6

And that's just what Jesus did. He stirred up the masses with his parables of the ways in which the people were being oppressed by the Romans. He inflamed passions with his parable of the ways in which the high priests collaborated with the Romans. He taught the masses the importance of being self-sufficient.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. -- Matthew 5:5

Those are the words of a revolutionary. Years after the fact the Roman Catholic Church deified Jesus and began to propagate the myth that he preached of an afterlife. The truth is, Jesus preached of a new kingdom on Earth - a kingdom of equality, a kingdom of justice, a kingdom of peacemakers.

These ideas were a threat to the status quo and to those who benefited from the way things were. Jesus had to die - his mere presence was a threat to the high priests.

Was his body in that tomb three days later? I have no idea. The accounts in the gospels were written years after the events portrayed and may have been authored to obscure the reality of who and what Jesus was. Could Jesus' body have been a metaphor for his revolutionary theories? Could the resurrection be a metaphor for the reigniting of the revolutionary spirit of the people?

Karl Marx wrote that religion was the opiate of the masses. Might religion have co-opted one the world's greatest revolutionaries?