Already there is talk about the next Presidential election, even though the old one finished barely 6 months ago. Pollsters, political pundits, and newscasters are already trying to figure out the candidate for the party out of power, which means dividing the population up according to gender, race, age, sociological standing, religion and a half dozen other categories.

While this sort of information may have some strategic significance in terms of strategizing a political campaign, to many of us it perhaps seems like an exercise in trivia. There were no public polls in Jesus’ day. There were no computers to analyze his public standing. Of course, he was not engaged in a political contest. But he was a public figure. People reacted to him one way or the other. Some people saw him as a thr…