With so much said about Jesus Christ, it’s easily overlooked that really did live as a human being – not born of a fable or myth, but born as a baby boy into a struggling family in the areas we now know as Israel and Palestine. In his early days his family experienced persecution, and were displaced for much of his childhood years.

Jesus existence as a person in history is not just recorded by his own followers. Authorities of his time also noted his impact in his own day. Here is a summary of Jesus’ life by a Jewish historian of his time, Josephus.

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders. ¹

¹ Arabic summary, presumably of Antiquities 18.63. From Agapios' Kitab al-'Unwan ("Book of the Title," 10th c.). The translation belongs to Shlomo Pines. See also James H. Charlesworth, Jesus Within Judaism.

However, we know the most detail about Jesus life from the Bible. The Gospels in the Bible are based on the specific experiences of Jesus’ followers; while many of the letters in the New Testament were written by another early follower of Jesus named Paul. Most Christians believe that the Bible is a way that God communicates with humanity using the words, experiences, and culture of people in Biblical times.

It is from these sources that we begin to discover Jesus as both a human person and more. For Christians of a Baptist persuasion this Jesus is also the Christ, God among humanity both then and now.

Jesus was Jewish, and part of the Hebrew tradition of faith. He grew up in a family that observed Jewish written and oral law. In his ministry he remains in touch with the local Synagogues, and his followers call him ‘Rabbi’ – teacher. His actions and teaching show his understanding of Jewish faith and his sense of place in Jewish history.

Jesus lived with an inner freedom - despite the detailed religious and political regulations of his day. This freedom showed through in his relationships and his actions, which brought new life and healing to many people.

Jesus was free to relate to people across the social and religious spectrum – religious officials and army officers, lepers and slaves. Jesus gives a higher place to women than any other leader did in his day.

Jesus was also free to act:

• to teach within the local places of worship, on the open fields, or while walking by the sea;

• to heal people - even on holy days when one wasn’t supposed to ‘work’;

• to serve people in very humble ways, such as washing his followers’ feet.

• In order to show his commitment to humanity, Jesus felt free enough to even give up his life.

Jesus often used his freedom to show his respect and commitment to ‘the poor’ – people deprived of economic, social, and religious standing in his day.

Encountering Jesus brought new life to many people. In healing people, Jesus attended to more than their physical needs. In Jesus’ time illness also implied social stigma and spiritual rejection. Illnesses often meant people were isolated and rejected by their own community. Therefore Jesus’ ministry restored people physically, socially, and spiritually.

Jesus healed people from many different walks of life. Here are just some examples:

a leper, a friend of an Army General, and the son of a Royal official,

a woman with chronic bleeding, and a young girl from a foreign country, and a friend’s mother in law,

a blind man, a woman crippled for 18 years, and a person who could neither hear nor speak.

Jesus life and ministry shows he can be trusted. Jesus showed active compassion when needed, and also a willingness to speak honestly and directly. We do not find Jesus bending to popular pressure to guide the way he treats people, even when tempted to do so. (See Jesus encounter with a woman from Canaan in Matthew 15:21-28).

This trust in Jesus can extend through trouble in life. Life with Christ does not equal ‘spiritual insurance’ protecting us from reality; rather we have the reassurance that God’s compassion and commitment carries us within life and beyond it.

Jesus encountered people in the midst of their daily life, and called them to orient their life around his life and purpose. For some that meant starting a new sense of occupation and relationship; for others it meant a new outlook within their current situations. Either way, this image lives on, as Jesus still calls people to follow in the midst of common life.

The simplicity and authority of Jesus invitation to follow him shows through in these early events in Jesus ministry:

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.

When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. (Mark 1)

Faith in Christ could not remain an inner perspective. Paul, another early follower of Jesus, uses rather athletic term to describe his commitment to Jesus:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 3)

In many different voices, the Bible gives a common message – that this person known as Jesus is the ‘Christ’, the Son of God. As such Jesus is equal with God’s own self.

This blend of human and divine was expressed in this early piece of writing:

…Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 2)

Jesus was known to some as ‘Saviour’ even before his birth, and that he would fulfil his people’s hopes. In Luke’s gospel Jesus’ parents are told about him in these words –

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2)

After seeing one woman’s life transformed by Jesus, a crowd of her friends said

“We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.” (John 4)

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection assure us that God is FOR humanity, not against it. We can put our faith in God’s faithfulness to us; that having done so much, God will not abandon us. Our ‘eternal security’ is not a matter of guesswork or labour. As one part of the Bible puts it,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no-one can boast. (Ephesians 2)

Many other popular religious leaders had lived and died before and after Jesus.

Within his teaching Jesus tried repeatedly to explain that his way of life would ultimately lead to his death. Yet he also said that his death would not be the end of the story – that he would live on beyond death.

And so it was. The experience of Jesus by his followers AFTER his death was unique. They knew Jesus had died. NOW then knew Jesus had risen from the grave, and was alive again among them. In the words of one of Jesus’ contemporaries,

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also… (Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15)

Christians believe this resurrection affirms Jesus claims to be both human and divine, to be both a son of his mother Mary and the Son of God.

This resurrection also means that Christians can continue in a current spiritual relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Therefore Christian faith is based on more than inherited stories and codes of behaviour – we live constantly within God’s love, whether aware of this or not.

One of the gospel writers, Matthew, concludes his account with these words: the risen Jesus tells them – and us – “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28)

Jesus taught that God was closer than many people thought in his day, and in our day. He used very personal terms to describe what a relationship with God can be like. At a distressing time, Jesus still called God ‘Abba’ – which means ‘Daddy’. (Mark 14:36) Jesus first public ‘sermon’ had a straightforward message. “The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) In other words, – Turn to God, because God has ‘drawn near’ to you. The idea of ‘drawn near’ literally means close enough for you to reach; within your grasp. As people accepted Jesus and their Lord, they came to know the closeness of God.

Jesus also said our relationship with him can be as close as a vine-branch is to the vine, where life flows and fruitfulness grows. (See John 15:1-11).

Jesus was a spiritual person, and more. He knew the company of God as Spirit as he started and continued his ministry. When Jesus completed his life and ministry on earth, he gave this gift of relating with God as Spirit to his group of followers. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as ‘another comforter’, that is, a source of comfort, counsel, and teaching just like himself. The Spirit as a gift. John 14 . Still today, our relationship with God is made possible by the gift of God’s Spirit living among us.

This closeness was not simply an inner experience. From the start of his public ministry, Jesus called people to follow him as a living response to God as revealed in Jesus. Therefore God’s closeness does not rest simply on how we feel – rather it offers confidence that God’s interest and commitment to us prevails. Our relationship with God rests in part on our faith, but even more so on God’s even greater faithfulness to us. Psalm 139 reflects some of this reassurance. Here is just part of what it says:

I can never escape from your spirit!

I can never get away from your presence!

If I go up to heaven, you are there;

if I go down to the place of the dead,[a] you are there.

If I ride the wings of the morning,

if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

even there your hand will guide me,

and your strength will support me.

I could ask the darkness to hide me

and the light around me to become night--

but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

Darkness and light are both alike to you.

Jesus became increasingly popular across the three years of his ministry. Resentment to Jesus teaching and popularity was also growing among some religious and political leaders.

Jesus arrived in the main city of Jerusalem just days before the largest annual religious festival, know as the Passover. He received a popular welcome, yet his opponents also rose to resist Jesus. They contrived to have Jesus charged with religious ‘’blasphemy’ – offended at his claim to be ‘the Messiah – God’s chosen one’. The ensuing uproar troubled the Roman authorities, who consented to Jesus’ execution just prior to the Passover as a traitor in claiming to be an alternative King for his people.

Jesus was executed by crucifixion – a protracted, humiliating, and inevitable death. His death was witnessed by both a jeering crowd and a handful of loving followers, including his own mother. Two other people were also crucified with Jesus on that day.

His death having been confirmed, Jesus was handed over to a few followers and buried in a borrowed tomb. Yet this is not the end of the story.

You can read more about this in Mark chapter 15, as well as in the other versions of Jesus life, called the Gospels.

Jesus words and actions were often challenging to powerful people and institutions. Even early in his ministry he got in trouble for healing a man with a crippled hand at the ‘wrong time and place’ – such as this incident early on in his ministry.

1Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. 2Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus' enemies watched him closely. Would he heal the man's hand on the Sabbath? If he did, they planned to condemn him. 3Jesus said to the man, "Come and stand in front of everyone." 4Then he turned to his critics and asked, "Is it legal to do good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing harm? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?" But they wouldn't answer him. 5He looked around at them angrily, because he was deeply disturbed by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, "Reach out your hand." The man reached out his hand, and it became normal again! 6At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to discuss plans for killing Jesus. (Mark 3:1-6)

Yet Jesus did not incite popular military uprising, as other had done before. His teaching and actions redefined how people saw their relationship with God and with each other.

Jesus often took familiar ideas and reshaped them into a new kind of good news for people. He raised the bar on the familiar instruction of ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ to ‘love one another as I have loved you’. In a set of his teaching since called ‘the Sermon on the Mount’ Jesus affirmed many counter-cultural values: the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hungered – even for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the persecuted.

The influence of Jesus ministry shows in the renewal he awakened both within and among people.

Jesus gave people a sense of hope. The struggles and injustice in life would not be the final word. There could be renewal and meaning even within the challenges of life, and that God would work with them to challenge these injustices.

Christ’s return carries a range of emphasise for Baptists. For some its significance is mainly in the future hope of Christ’s return to finally correct injustice in our world.

What good will it be for someone if they gain the whole world, yet forfeits their soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. (Matthew 16:26-27)

For others its significances is mainly in the present call to be alert to Christ’s presence among us today, and responsive to Christ’s priorities (e.g. the three stories in Matthew 25)