What if Jesus, when he entered Jerusalem, had not been crucified, or even arrested? The way the Synoptic Gospels tell the story, it was a near thing: The priests did not dare arrest Jesus publicly by daylight, or there might have been a riot. Judas made it possible, by telling them where they could find Jesus in the middle of the night. If Judas had not betrayed Jesus, or if he had tried but failed – what then? Would Jesus be forgotten today? Would he have become a leading religious figure in Judaea? Or (as the priests feared) would he have become the leader, or the focus, of a new rebellion against the Herods and Rome? If so, would the rebellion have succeeded? Or would it have ended like the later rebellion of 66-71 AD ended, with Jerusalem sacked, the Temple razed, and thousands sold into slavery?
(If you’re a Christian you probably can’t consider this scenario even as a hypothetical. Doctrine holds Jesus’ mission was supposed the end with his being executed, as a redemptive sacrifice for the sins of humanity; God would not have allowed the story to end any other way. But please try to set that aside, just for this discussion.)
I just get this image in my head, maybe its the Monty Python scriptwriters,
Jesus “Look ,its all a mistake Judas meant me, not Jeb, I really really am THE ONE you should be arresting”
Pontios Pilate " Now be a good Messiah and join all the others ones outside please"
Jesus " What ! You mean there’s others ?"
Pontius Pilate “Never a week goes by, nary a one I tell you, but some mullet haired git drops by demanding to be crucified without so much as a ‘by your leave’ or please and thankyou, they are mostly rather rude”
Jesus" Waddya mean rude you bignose git!"
Pontius Pilate " No manners, not surprising really, dragged up intead of brought up, no-one to look up to you see, now run along"
Jesus “Listen you bignose git, before I bugger off I’m gonna stick one right on your big conk”
>>>>>>>>Biff Biff Biff Biff Biff<<<<<<<<<<<,
Pontius Pilate " Doh, my poor dose, doo did dat od purpode diddne youd - guards take hib abay add knock hib ub to vat wump of wood over dere"
Jesus " Hang on what happened to all the ‘run along now’ stuff a moment ago"
Pontius Pilates “Sod that, guard, give me that spear, a hammer and an handful of nail I’ll do it meself, bleedin Arabs they never know when to keep their gobs shut”
Jesus "OOOhhh now we see the violence inherant in the system, you’re a racist you are, ow ow ow leggo "
Well, instead of being crucified he was, oh, fined 10 shekels and given house arrest for 30 days, maybe he would’ve only descended to New Jersey.
There’s a difference?
Well, I’m a Christian, but I’m not beyond a good game of “what if.”
Let’s say Pilot doesn’t order an execution, nor does the crowd decide to take matters into its own hands.
Jesus goes back on the preaching circuit, performs a few more miracles and begins to make a bigger name for himself.
In a few years, instead of having to stretch enough loaves and fishes to feed 5,000, he winds up sermonizing to 8,000-10,000.
At that point you can guess a) that the Romans aren’t comfortable with an itinerant preacher who can draw a crowd of 8,000-10,000 people in the desert of Palestine, so they kill him or b) Jesus builds up enough of a following that his preachings outlast his death.
Either way, Christianity still takes root.
Not a Christian, either; I follow Buddhist teaching, but admire Jesus’ teaching as well, at it’s root.
I suppose that without cruxificion, Jesus might have lived, as Gautama Buddha, to a ripe old age, and taught his wisdom to many more followers. All to the good of expanding minds.
Without cruxificion, particularly by betrayal, Christianity might have developed with a less gruesome core issue. That core belief of an enlightened person sacrificing himself painfully in order to awaken spirituality in people has never sat well in my mind, it seems like brutal overkill, and that image of wrongful, painful death sets up a mindset of revenge for that death. It’s suffering, but does not put personal responsibility for the suffering that all human beings go through. Never made much sense to me.
I would also like to believe that what became the Holy Bible would be a very different document. For one thing, he would have had time to develop a following large enough to warrant a scribe or two. Or eleven. This means that ( maybe ) the Holy Bible would be largely the word of Jesus Christ.
A far cry from 4 gospels, the last of which was written well over 100 years after the death of Jesus.
I am with Elelle though, in that the core message would have endured and flourished. Less blood, more love. Pretty appealing, as religious messages go. 
On a more lighthearted level, one does wonder what the icon would have become if a crucifix wasn’t used as it was used back then.
Cartooniverse
Scandanavian flags would probably look much different. I think had he lived, Jesus would have been remembered much as Buddah is- a very wise human with a pacifist philosophy. I don’t see him as leading any sort of rebellion against Herod, after all “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” implies a recognition of Roman soverignty and a disinterest in overthrowing the government.
That one’s easy. For the first few centuries, the fish was the primary symbol of Christianity (thanks to “I will make you fishers of men”, the ICHTHOS acronym, etc.). Without the cross, it would have remained so.
If Jesus was killed by another means would we not have crosses as holy symbols?
Would there be an iron maiden or a guillotine symbol on candles and bibles all over the world? How about a hangman’s noose?
Since the Jewish Messiah was supposed to become a great king and take over the throne of David, if He had continued with his pacifist “render unto Caesar” persona, most of His followers probably would’ve eventually abandoned him.
But what about, “I am not come to bring peace but a sword”?
Or maybe a cloud of flying rocks.
“Nobody is to stone anybody until I blow this whistle! Even – and I want to make this very clear – even if he does say Jehovah!” [thud, crunch, smash, thump]
Can you quote me chapter and verse on that? Context is everything with Jesus’ words.
An image of Jesus cashing a Social Security check?
Matthew 10:34.
This book speculates on what would have happened if Pilate pardoned Jesus.
Unfortuantely, it’s been quite a while since I read it.
Zev Steinhardt
The Procurator trilogy by Kirk Mitchell is based on the same premise. Uchronia: Procurator Trilogy Jesus is pardoned, he sinks into obscurity – and the Roman Empire is still around in the 20th Century. Which is as much as to say that Christianity is what brought down the Empire. I don’t buy it. IRL, after the Western Empire fell, the Eastern Empire hung on for another thousand years as a Christian state.
–smacks forehead-- Right you are. Even now, it is a pretty popular icon from what I can see on people’s car rear panels and bumpers.
Hurm. I think Gentile Christianity would be missing its early core myth: The True Living God who conquered death. So whatever such a world’s not-quite-Christianity would have become, it might mean something very different.