![]() ![]() In 63 B.C., the Roman general Pompey took Jerusalem and the Temple after a short battle. To understand Jesus’s teachings in light of first century politics, we must sketch briefly the previous hundred years of Jewish history. The Thai pastor’s message raised in a new way the issues surrounding politics and religion in Jesus’s day, and how to make sense of them in our own. I realized that I had never seriously thought of monarchy as better than democratic governance even more, I had unwittingly transposed that assumption onto other Christians today. This ruler is good to the Thai people, he affirmed, while the politicians are leading the country in unhelpful directions. In a parenthetical remark during his exposition of Scripture, he noted how highly he valued Thailand’s king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, an upright man. I reflected recently on these questions while listening to a sermon by a Thai pastor. ![]() Perhaps the disciples reflect this attitude in their question to Jesus: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) But what does it mean to be free? How did Jesus’s words and actions about the Kingdom of God define and shape the apostolic response to the Roman Empire? How might American Christians today define freedom? A similar motto might have rallied many first century Jews against the Roman imperial expansion. ![]() “Live free or die,” declared John Stark, general in the Revolutionary War and native of New Hampshire. ![]()
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