Many Jews at the time of Jesus were hoping and praying for another messiah like Judas Maccabeus, and another victory like Emmaus, to liberate them once again, this time from the Romans. You can see this in the way that they welcomed Jesus just a few days earlier with the political chant “Hosanna” as he rode into Jerusalem like the Messiah predicted by Zechariah: “lowly and riding on a donkey” (9:9). And this latent longing for a military messiah in the mold of Judas Maccabeus did not go away after Jesus’ death. Listen carefully to the language used by his own disciples in Acts 1:6: “Lord, are
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