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In this 2009 Palm Sunday message, Pastor Ahsh examines the reasons that the religious authorities of Jesus’ day sought to kill him.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

King was resisted both by the authorities of his own country and the leaders of his own faith. The white authorities thought he was out of line and would still up a a revolution that would disrupt their power. The white pastors thought he was too radical and should be more patient and the Black Panthers thought he was weak and idealistic. In the end he was assassinated. Its no mystery what led to his imprisonments and his eventual assassination. He had a message and it offended many people and disturbed the status quo.

Now the question I want us to ask this morning is, what about Jesus?

Many people will say that he was simply a good teacher, or a self-realized post-modern New Age American guru who discovered his oneness with he universe. Or most, simply don’t think of him at all. He is just some vague religious leader from history but he’s just from insecure and fear driven fundamentalist, and not needed by normal healthy people… people who are more enlightened. But none of this explanations can explain the extreme hatred that he inspired in the powers that be. And neither can these ideas fully explain the radical power that his life and teachings had to bring and unimaginable revolution and overflow of histories most powerful empire. Something radical, something absolutely unique and world shattering had to be at the heart of his life and teachings that led to the passion week.

What did Jesus say and do to inspire so much hatred by the religious and political authorities? Why was his arrest, trial, and execution performed outside of a legal court, without the due course of law, through incited mob violence, and using the most heinous and grotesque form of torture ever conceived by mankind?

8 Things that Jesus said and did that led to his unjust arrest, trial, and assassination.

1) He challenged the ethnocentrism of his people. Luke 4:16-30
2) He challenged the corruption and self-sufficiency of wealth and morality. Luke 18:18-30
3) He rebuked the religious leaders for hypocrisy and legalism. Luke 11:37-44
4) He cleared the temple and rebuked those who turned it into a market Luke 19:41-48
5) He confronted corrupt rulers and fearlessly faced death with a prophetic certainty. Luke 13:31-35
6) He claimed to have God’s authority to forgive sin. Luke 5:17-26
7) His followers believed that he was the Messianic King … Luke 19:35-40. Zech. 9:9-11
He claimed to be the One true God come in the flesh. Luke 22:66-71

The only way to explain the crucifixion is that Jesus of Nazareth really said these things.

He is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.