Was Jesus a radical?

Was Jesus a radical?

"To be truly radical is to understand the root [cause] of the problem."  Angela Davis

White abolitionists who worked hard to abolish slavery weren't radical enough, biblically speaking.  They stopped at freedom for slaves but did not follow up with justice for the freed slaves (40 acres and a mule).  In fact, many white abolitionists were actually racist, as Lincoln was, (they believed that whites were superior to blacks) at the same time that they were against slavery.

In American eyes, white abolitionists were radical, but biblically they went only halfway.  Since ethnocentrism/racism was not rooted out, soon slavery was replaced by another system of oppression which enslaved blacks again.  Slavery was replaced by segregation, sharecropping and prison work gangs.

Was Jesus radical enough?  Jesus the radical, revolutionary prophet who pushed hard for the incarnation of the kingdom of God here on earth, identified ethnocentrism and oppression as the root social evils plaguing Palestine (Luke 4).  So he prophetically proclaimed that the revered temple was a den of robbers, that the religious leaders, many of whom were rich, neglected justice and the love of God.  He also scorched the religious rich ("Woe [doom] to the rich") who put Money on a par with God.

Jesus also had a radical solution: incarnate the kingdom of God in behalf of the oppressed poor; pursue Jubilee justice; practice love and do justice to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.  Only the Spirit-filled church (Acts 4:32-35) can fulfill this demanding assignment.  An Americanized church can't, and it is likely to be a part of the problem more than a solution.

In Mt. 5:10, Jesus warned that those who did justice would likely experience persecution.  After Jesus cleansed the temple and called it a den of robbers, the chief priests sought his death.  In their eyes, Jesus was a dangerous revolutionary.  After all their practice of ethnocentrism and oppression produced prosperity---for them.