Andrew,

“At issue is who reigns over Israel - and then what happens when God comes to reign over his people”

Who the heck do you think was ruling over Israel if it was not the Roman Empire? Who is God expected to replace? Who would have been pissed off at the idea of a new messiah coming to lead Israel against its oppressors?

“Jesus no doubt believed himself to be enacting the coming of YHWH as king to Jerusalem to liberate his people from political-military oppression (cf. Zech. 9:8-10). But to suggest that this symbolized a peasant revolt against an unjust imperial domination system seems to me to be politicizing the event in the wrong way.”

I don’t understand the distinction you make here. If Jesus saw himself as the coming king ot liberate his people, if he clearly trained people with how to protest and resist Roman soldiers, and he clearly had a large following, then how is that not leading a revolt? Maybe he didn’t have enough time to make a big splash. Are you ONLY able to imagine a military revolt? It seems obvious Jesus is presenting a revolt but a NON-miliatry NON-violent revolt. His revolt was “not of this world”. It was something other than the type of revolt that “this world” created(imperialistic violence and domination).