Dear Saltpetre,

Could I invite you to revisit the scripture, John 8. The chapter is about the Pharisees wanting to trick Jesus into denying the law so they could then have justification for having him killed. This only works if they felt that Jesus would want to refrain from passing judgement on someone that then resulted in them losing their life. In the next chapter they try to get him for working on a Sabbath when he healed the blind man. The one following that he is accused of blasphemy for saying he was the son of God.

This is the theme that is being played out not one about, in your words, drawing “attention to the hypocritical and unjust stance of the Law of the time”.

John 8 is pretty clear, Jesus was against the taking of a life even if it was proscribed by law.

You asked “What would Jesus think about drug dealers? Surely not the death penalty, but at least something fairly severe.”

Well the answer is pretty evident in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats and I reproduce it here for your contemplation;

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Cont..

Cont..

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fireprepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

So the answer to your question is that Jesus would go and visit them in prison, his heart was open to the plight of prisoners, to their stories, to their needs. Of course to the likes of platypus900 he would be displaying 'misguided values' that need to be 'pushed back against'. And this is why his lot are so false and particularly egregious when they attempt to adopt the label of 'a follower of Jesus Christ'. Compare him to Hasbeen and individual, both have views with which I have issues but at least they are consistent and not normally anywhere near as hypocritical.