[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Before you flame, think: It was a suicide exactly as much and in exactly the same manner as is suicide-by-cop today.

I dunno. The closest I can think of Jesus coming to attacking the police was when he threw the moneychangers out of the temple.

[demosthenes the elder]

Ah, sorry, I oversimplified.
The exact parallel is in committing an act which one knows before hand will certainly cause the powers-that-be to kill you, and then refusing to take any option offered by those powers which would result in a peaceful resolution.
In both cases (the Sacrifice and modern death-by-cop) the death is brought about by the will of the one who dies. It is thus suicide, irrespective of the fact that other people do the actual killing. So, for that matter, is deliberately walking out in front of a semi doing 30+mph.