Was Jesus a rebel? He kept the Roman law and He never offended Father God. Yes, He was not appreciated by the religious leaders because they assumed an authority and pomposity which God had never given to them. No, that was not rebellion against God … it was they who had rebelled through their pride and hunger for power in Israel. The crowd, people who had previously welcomed Jesus' miracles and teaching, had finally been incited by the clerics to rebel against the Son of God: but it was always in their nature.
 
Jesus spoke with authority to the mob that surrounded Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked the question, "Am I a rebel?" If He had done anything which might be illegal, then the authorities could have arrested Him during one of His regular teaching sessions in the courtyard of the temple. But they dared not to do so because the people knew He was godly (Matthew 26:5): it might have prompted a riot supporting Jesus and threatening the clerics' power-base.
 
What had changed? Ordinary people, who once loved Jesus, hated Him. That included the disciples who had protested their loyalty to Jesus: they all ran away from the Garden of Gethsemane assuming their own freedom and lives were also in danger. Trust had turned to doubt, joy to fear and love to hate. However strongly they might have felt towards Jesus and all that is good from God, given the opportunity they reverted to their natural spiritual condition – rebellion against God.
 
We all have the same problem! Our natural default is to doubt what God says, to boast of what we can do and disobey what God tells us to do. Rebellion is natural to human beings, even religious ones … and even those who have heard Jesus and followed Him. We do not need much encouragement from the world, the flesh or the devil in order to rebel against Him. The disciples learned that lesson repeatedly and painfully; but by the time they had the responsibility of leading the Early Church they knew their weaknesses better, and God's power better too (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Once we admit that we are rebels by nature, the easier it will be to spot the rebel in ourselves, and do something about it while there is time.