What did Jesus do?
He preached and taught. Righteousness and mercy mattered, so did justice and humility. "Justice," of course, was not only not being biased against the poor but also not being biased against the rich. The law's the law, and gets implemented justly. The word had a meaning when he used it; he almost certainly intended for it to have the meaning it had at the time.
Mercy was also important. If you've been wronged, you can always ask that the law not be enforced, or that the law be enforced fairly. Peace was a big deal. He ate with the poor and with sinners. He also ate with tax collectors, a key oppressor of society, and with the rich.
He'd have no trouble having lunch breakfast in a park with the homeless, then with Franks and Conyers at a $10,000 a plate fundraiser, and then dinner with Mitt Romney and Joe Arpaio in a mansion. And he'd have words of rebuke for each. If any one started to brag about his righteousness and how he's glad he's not like the other--poor and humble versus rich and arrogant, properly progressive instead of rabidly rightist, righteously right rather than liberally lousy, Jesus would probably sit quietly and then ask about something that the braggart had done that was more than a bit wrong. Peace and humility. Worry about the mote in your own eye before going on a crusade about the beam in your neighbor's.
Oddly, Jesus didn't have a grievance against imperialism. Conquering power? Soldiers and occupation? Pay your taxes to your occupier, live in peace as much as possible, and tell the soldiers to just do what they're told. Same for the tax collectors--collect what's owed and no more.
He healed people. That's always an option. If a person comes up to you, sick, help him. That's not a crime. You're free to use any resources you have to help people. His disciples had a moneybag for donations. They paid their own expenses and also helped the poor with what money they had, giving until it hurt. That meant they didn't even bother with money for things like rent or mortgage, utilities or other things. Taxes, sure. Oddly, though, there's no call for collections. He didn't say, "You have to give money to me" nor did he even ask (much less demand) that it be given to somebody else. The one case on record he told somebody else to give his own money and wealth to the poor--and then said there was still an out. Not a big emphasis on collective righteousness or action, that's strictly a grass-roots kind of phenomenon. If you participate, great. If not, that's your call.
So he told the rich to help the poor, and told people to help each other. He even said that the rich could be saved. He nailed the Pharisees and Sadducees not so much for being rich, but for being hypocrites, for making laws and requirements that weren't part of the original law, for putting burdens on others that they didn't want to bear themselves.
What would Jesus have done? Not a whole lot. He was David after being annointed but while Saul was still on the throne. Limited actions available to him.
/sermon mode off.
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