Endo, in A Life of Jesus, makes clear how the crowd’s concept of Jesus as Messiah - as a nationalistic figure who would overthrow the established order - is in total conflict with Jesus’ main message, which is to speak of the love of God and the God of love.
At the two main meals at which Jesus presides, the feeding of the 5000 and the Last Supper, messianic fervour ran high. The crowd wanted to manifest its concept of who Jesus, who the Messiah, needed to be. Jesus denies them on both occasions, speaking instead of his death and of his love.
The concept of a Messiah who would die was simply not within the realm of imagination. And the crowds, ramped up in excitement at these critical moments, are diffused in disappointment at Jesus’ refusal to make use of this momentum. Judas storming out to betray Jesus is not the only one whose hopes are dashed, who will turn from support to anger and accusation.
So goes all the faith in our concepts of the divine, our need to see our image of God, of Jesus, of victory, of political rightness, of social righteousness brought into fruition on the world. We will kill anyone who gets in the way of our vision of goodness.
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