I was pondering this while listening to the Passion story from Matthew. What if Jesus' crucifixion was a trick by the Romans and Jesus working together. He was only on the cross for a few hours, it took many people days to die from crucifixion. They also didn't break his bones. They then took him down from the cross, laid him in the tomb that was "hewn from the rock" wich may have been designed to store food or allow Jesus to get food and water some way. Then the guard at the tomb would push the stone away, Jesus ressurects, the large sect of his followers would support Roman power over that of the High priests who put jesus to death. Jesus then gets his closest followers together who probably were in on it the whole time, tells them to spread the religion and then retires to an estate in southern gaul maybe to be joined by Mary Magdaline. This ressurection adds weight Christian beliefs and avoids Jesus from rising to become the literal king of the jews(may have been the intention of the conspiracy in the first place). The spread of this Christian belief may have given Pilot more political power where he was suffering before, while at the same time making the High Priests look bad.

Many people during this era weren't above using simple tricks to propagate their religions(and make money doing it). It wouldn't surprise me all that much if this is what Jesus did. I know this is going to offend a ton of people here, but it's just speculation and I thought it was an interesting idea.