You, of course, do not have to agree with me, but, in my understanding, it was precisely the conflict between the kingdom of God and the Empire of Caesar that got Jesus killed. Jesus died because his allegiance was, first and foremost, to living out God's way of love and mercy, justice and grace. Jesus' commitment to God's way put him in conflict with the religious leaders of his day, whose commitment was first to maintaining their own power, privilege, and possessions in this world through the institution of the Temple and only second to the ways of God. Jesus' commitment to God's way also put him in conflict with the political leaders of his day, whose commitment was first to maintaining their own power, privilege, and possessions in this world through taxation and legislation.
These statements are not to claim that the first-century Jewish Temple or Roman Empire were all bad. Instead, it is to say there were ways in which the leaders of both of these systems put their own self interest before God's way -- which is why, in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus doesn't just say "believe the good news." Rather, he says, "repent, and believe in the good news." By repent, he means change your life. In Borg's words, he means, you need transformation in this world through a first-hand relationship with God.
Jesus' passion for the kingdom of God is why, in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we read about the event that precipitated Jesus' death at the hands of the Roman authorities. We find Jesus:
driv[ing] out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple and ... overturn[ing] the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves [all while saying], "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?' But you have made it a den of robbers."
Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah to emphasize that God has been clear for a long time that God wants "a house of prayer for all the nations," not a corrupt religious institution that is complicit with or oblivious to the plight of the poor and marginalized. Jesus learned his unrelenting passion for the God's way from the Hebrew prophets like Isaiah who came before him and similarly chastised the religious and political leaders of their own day, who similarly placed their self interest ahead of God's way. Listen, for example, to fifth chapter of the book of Amos, where the prophet says on behalf of God:
21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
As Jesus would do 700 years later, Amos is saying that if God has to choose between worship and justice, then God chooses justice. God does not want to make this choice, but God's preference is clear.
Consider, further, the larger context of our own theme verse here at Northminster, Micah 6:8, which has been widely heralded as a summation of the mitzvot, the 613 commandments in the Torah that detailed how to lead a holy life in ancient Israel. Starting two verses earlier in verse six, we read:
6 "With what shall I come before God, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before God with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will God be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the God require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah stresses that God does not want burnt offerings or child sacrifice -- and God's abhorrence of child sacrifice did not change with the sacrifice of the one proclaimed to be God's own son. Instead, the Hebrew prophetic tradition, of which Jesus was a part, is clear that God wants, first and foremost, for us to treat one another with justice and compassion -- and to know God first-hand for ourselves.
Following in Micah's footsteps, Jesus offered his own summary of the Law and the Prophets as follows:
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