This is why Jews are Jews and not Christians, among many other reasons, but I don't think I ever really learned the historical reasoning for the rejection at the time of his death. Whether you believe Jesus is the son of God, he was a real person.
I just don't understand how and why exactly they didn't believe he was the son of God, and how they managed to survive for so long not believing it.
Why did they reject Elijah? Elisha? Isaiah? The judges? Joseph? Abraham? Why did David fall so greatly and write psalms so amazingly?
Pontius Pilot was told by his wife not to like Joshua of Mary, and yet the politics said he had to. Every legend they had placed the prophets as these great men who had powers like the gods. Who would reject Moses? Yet he was rejected several times. A normal looking man who does have great power, but chooses to be human like us is hard to accept. They want Hercules and the stories of Elijah to be constantly happening. Isaiah was performing miracles and was sawed in half. Daniel performed miracles and yet the people did not care. The only reason why Joshua wasn't rejected was he had no problems with beating people to death.
Basically, they wanted the Aang from the last episode of Avatar the Last Airbender, and not the actual kid who did it all. We know the stories, but that's the highlights, not the normal boring days.
When we only look at the human, we often reject the idea of all that could be done by one. Even greater, what God can do with them. I feel the same way about technology and art.