This past Saturday was the fifteenth of March, and if you know anything about Roman history (or if you paid attention that one day in Literature), you know March 15th was the day Julius Caesar took twenty-three knives to the back. He was killed by a conspiracy involving enemies and friends alike, men who were worried he would bring the downfall of the Romans upon them. The tragedy is best known by the Shakespeare play (my favorite of his works), and while most of the senators come off like jerks in the play, Brutus—the friend—is presented largely as a sympathetic figure, dragged into going along with the conspiracy by the real villains.
If you ask me, though, Brutus is the worst of the villains (I don’t care what Mark Antony says), because he was too weak to stand up for what he knew to be right.
~Incoming Comparison to Jesus~
Like Caesar, our Lord was the subject of a conspiracy to kill Him, organized by the religious ruling class and one of His own disciples. The ruling class worried that Jesus’ radical teaching would stir up a violent reaction from (ironically, in comparison to Julius Caesar) the Roman Empire. They justified killing Jesus in the name of “preserving their own lives” (John 11:50) and found a helpful ally in Judas (whose name coincidentally rhymes with Brutus 
) to pull it off.
The big difference between Julius Caesar and Jesus Christ? Jesus rose from the dead. Also, a big difference: Caesar’s death sparked a war between Mark Antony / Octavius against Cassius / Brutus, filled with violence on both sides. On the other hand, the war that followed Christ’s death (and resurrection) is a spiritual one, where the soldiers of the Lord fight, not to end lives but to save them.
I like that much better.
~Matthew