Thieves, Bandits, and Insurrectionists

These words are different in different circumstances. A thief would be someone who enters a house in the cover of darkness and steals others’ belongings or mugs pedestrians and takes their belongings. In contrast, bandits are a group of thieves uniting under a bad or good cause, like Bonnie and Clyde or Robin Hood and his merry men. Insurrections, however, are revolutionists who cause chaos, including guerilla wars and terrorist acts, for a purpose or stance. Judas Maccabees’ guerilla warfare to free the Israelites from the Seleucids in B.C. 160s would fall under the category of insurrectionists. Context and history’s interpretation determine how the world remembers them.

Decades ago, Indian villagers considered Veerappan a hero since he helped the poor. But the Indian government considered him a bandit as he cut down priced sandalwood trees and poached elephant tusks for his “cause.” In 2004, he and his group of bandits/insurrectionists were gunned down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veerappan

One Greek word means a “thief, bandit, or insurrectionist” based on the context – liistis (λῃστής). Earlier, Jesus was in the temple at Jerusalem, saw people buying and selling, chased away the merchants, freed the animals, and cried out,

“My house is a house for prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of liistis (thieves, bandits, or insurrectionists).” (Mark 11:17)

While the betrayer, religious rulers, and a crowd attacked him at Gethsemane, he asked,

“You come after me with swords and clubs to capture me as if I am a liistis (a thief, bandit, insurrectionist), when I was with you day after day, in your temples, teaching?” (14:48–49).

A little later, they crucified him along with two liistis – one on his right and one on his left – as if he were a liistis (a thief, bandit, insurrectionist) (15:27).

While he had accused them of behaving as thieves, bandits, and insurrectionists because they turned God’s temple into a marketplace, they treated him as a thief, bandit, and insurrectionist. They hadn’t forgotten what he accused them of and paid him back the same compliment in action.

Such a treatment brought fear among even his faithful disciples:

“They all left him and ran.” (14:50)

What happened to Peter, who told him just a few hours earlier that even if everyone scattered, he would not (14:29)? He fled. A young man who followed Jesus that night had just a linen cloth, a sindon, i.e., a nightgown, around his waist. When someone grabbed him by his sindon, he left that behind and ran away naked. Who would want to be associated with someone treated as a liistis, a thief, a bandit, or an insurrectionist, who would be crucified soon? None.

Yet, salvation awaits those who associate with this liistis, Jesus of Nazareth. He was God’s insurrectionist bringing God’s rule that was so unexpected – where Hebrews and Greeks, males and females, and free and enslaved are one and are united. He was truly a resurrectionist and insurrectionist. He covers our shame with his garment of purity (cp. 16:5). So, we follow him unashamedly even in our nakedness.