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Gut: Innocuous Jesus or innocuous Andreas? I say neither.

Spill: The whole time Andreas is gathering information for Metilius and Pilate about Jesus and the Zealot movement he is concerned with preserving not only his life but also the lives he is supposed to be monitoring. He does not want anyone to come to harm because of his reports, but he also does not want harm to come to himself or his business. Andreas' situation is surely not innocuous for he holds the lives of others in his hands (figuratively through his writing of reports), and Pilate has power over Andreas' life. When Andreas must write a report on Jesus, he plays Jesus off as just another philosopher/poet to prevent the Romans from suspecting him as a revolutionary. This gentle report of Jesus and His teachings is making light of Jesus' movement, but it is also serving to keep Andreas' conscience clean. In the end, I feel both Jesus and Andreas will be exposed. Jesus is going to continue His movement, and the Romans will soon find He is not innocuous as Andreas portrayed Him. Andreas will find himself finally unable to explain his way out of things and forced to choose sides--he cannot remain neutral forever. Andreas' purpose for writing an innocuous report of Jesus is merely to keep himself and his conscience guilt free, but the time is coming where he will no longer be able to remain innocuous himself.