Jay Haley, “The Power Tactics of Jesus Christ”

“Although Jesus was alone, there were many factors on his side and like any great leader he skillfully used the forces available to him”:

• “The population was discontented” and “had little to lose”.
• “The power structure was not unified but divided” and “could not offer a united front against a bid for power”.
• He “had on his side the mythology of the time” that “a single man could arrive and put everything right”.

“Riches and Roman citizenship were not available to him, but in Judaism a man could rise from low to high estate by following a religious life … His apparent poverty was not a handicap to the prophet’s path and in face could be defined as a virtue.”

“The state and the priestly hierarchy were accustomed to criticism within the prophet framework.”

“He defined what he said as proper orthodoxy … First, he insisted that he was not suggesting a change and then he called for a change. Second, he insisted that the ideas he was presenting were not deviations from the established religion but a more true expression of the ideas of that religion. … By calling for conformity to the Law, Jesus disarms opposition. By then redesigning the Law, he sets himself up as an equal in power and authority to the entire religious establishment of the state.”

“The reputation of Jesus as a healer gave him his greatest notoriety. It is the nature of the healing trade to strike a deep chord of wishful thinking in people. Legends build quickly and success in healing breeds belief in success and therefore more success … Since illness knows no class, this reputation also gave him access to the rich.”

“He did not brag about his cures and so arouse investigations or resistance; instead he advised his patients to keep the cure secret. Since no one who has been cured of a lifelong distress is likely to, or will find it possible to, conceal the cure, the result was to have the cure broadcast by others so that only the statements of others could be refuted.”

“If a man wishes to be thought of as an equal, or a superior, to a powerful opponent, he can make audacious personal attacks upon him. The more audacious the attack, the more prominent does the attacked become if it is widely known.”

“Clearly he was a man building an organization: one of his first acts was to recruit a cadre who would recruit others.”

“Jesus did not recruit among the members of the establishment but from the lower strata of the population where he was gathering his following.”

“When he recruited his men, he asked of them what is now typically asked of any small revolutionary cadre: they had to give up everything related to ambition in the society as it was and abandon all other commitments to others, including family ties, when they joined him.”

“Jesus specifically gave his men the status of an elite” but “also he kept his men unsure and so more actively dedicated in following him by raising the doubt whether they were finally acceptable to him.”

“Jesus used the persecution by outsiders as a tactic for bringing unity to his group.”

“One can take a second coat and still cure, but one cannot win followers among the poor with money or a second coat or even shoes.”

“Jesus trained his cadre in his methods, but he managed, as any good leader should, not to be surpassed by them. He put them in their places by criticizing their obtuseness … their inability to do miracles … and their jealousy over who will be first with him and highest in rank when success comes.”

“As a matter of fact, there is no compliment paid by Jesus to any of his followers.” [nearest thing is “upon this Rock” to Peter, but that is shortly followed by “get behind me, Satan”.]

“Revolutionary leaders have learned to bypass entirely the current political establishment and build an independence movement. Such leaders do not seek acceptance and advancement within the establishment, they appeal for their support among the dispossessed of society.”

“His basic tactic was to define the poor as more deserving of power than anyone else and so to curry their favor.”

“The conservative force of the family is an impediment to any mass movement, and only after becoming the establishment does a revolutionary group call for family solidity.”

“The leaders of all revolutionary movements have learned to define themselves as leading a movement that will inevitably come to power. This way, the irresistible is on their side.”

“A man has power if he can order someone to behave in a certain way, but he also has power if he can provoke someone to behave in that way.”

“He was not using the promise of heaven as a way of persuading the poor to accept their misery, but as a promise that if they followed him and resisted the establishment they would achieve heaven; if they followed the establishment they would not.”

“You cannot defeat a helpless opponent; if you strike him and your blows are unreturned, you can only suffer feelings of guilt and exasperation as well as doubt about who is the victor.”

“The use of meekness to determine what is to happen in a power struggle works most effectively if there is a threat of violence in the background to support the meek tactic.”

“He did not violate the altar or intrude upon the Holy of Holies—he focused on the commercial aspect of the temple, saying they were turning a house of prayer into a robbers’ cave. By this kind of public attack he could win immediate fame throughout the city while not giving his opposition an advantage. It was awkward for the priesthood to retaliate against him for his violent ways because he was quoting their own scripture to them, attacking a point difficult to defend.”

“He did not intend to die but wished to be arrested because he was finally pitting himself and the strength of his organization in a final power struggle with the establishment.”

“Jesus made it legally impossible for them to condemn him to death: the condemnation must be done by breaking the rules.”

“Who could have guessed the Sanhedrin would condemn him without evidence, that Pilate would happen to ask the crowd for a decision, and that the crowd he had never wronged would ask for his death? Even a master tactician cannot take into account all the possibilities, including chance occurrences.”

“The act of being executed extended his control beyond the grave [and] required most of mankind to bend their necks to his yoke.”