I don’t claim to be a scholarly authority on Jesus. This is just what I have come to believe from all that I have read, heard, seen, felt, and experienced.

(What do you believe and why?)

Jesus was a courageous firebrand; a Jew who lived under Roman oppression - fully human - who aligned his will completely with Infinite Intelligence - fully divine - who lived and died and was resurrected so that we could understand that we are Spirit first, and that the purpose of living on earth as humans is to test spiritual principles and pursue spiritual growth. He has ascended to the higher realms as a Spiritual Master and will help any who call upon him.

Jesus in Context

The beginning of the first millenium CE was a tumultuous time. Jerusalem was home to a settled population of about a hundred thousand people and subject to Roman occupation.

Rome would forge alliances with the aristocracy in every city they occupied and in Jerusalem, that meant the handful of wealthy families who maintained the Temple cult. If the Romans wanted to control the Jews, they had to control the Temple.

Michael Avi-Yonah’s model of Herod’s Temple, as it may have looked in Jesus’s time.

Rome stationed legions of troops throughout Judea, with six hundred Roman soldiers residing atop the Temple Mount itself.  Rome appointed and deposed the high priest - essentially transforming him into a Roman employee. Likewise, the Romans paid the Temple priests handsomely to collect taxes, to collect the tribute for Caesar, and to keep order.

Roman rule, especially coming after a century of independence, was detested by the common Judeans.  And it was into this environment that Jesus was born.

Jesus the Human

He was born in Nazareth (or maybe Bethlehem) and grew up a poor laborer. He became a disciple of John the Baptist until John’s arrest. Then Jesus placed himself, and his whole ministry, in opposition to the oppression of the Roman overlords and their collaborators. Like John, Jesus preached the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God, which would be an earthly, political state ruled by God or his anointed, a messiah.

Jesus may have looked something like this

Jesus was not the only one to foment rebellion. Other Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land. This was the age of zealotry. Jesus was not the only one to be arrested and crucified for sedition, but Jesus is the one who is remembered. And I think that is because of his divinity.

Jesus the Divine

Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was a state of political liberation for the Jewish people AND a state of Spiritual enlightenment. A state where people would strive to live in humility and service; in kindness and love and non-attachment to material things.

As he taught the lessons of Spirit, he demonstrated what was possible when one lives in accordance with nature’s physical and spiritual laws. And this got a lot of attention.

Jesus was an exorcist and faith healer; he was a prophet, a psychic, and a medium. So, by the time Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey as the Jewish Messiah, he was already infamous.

He was known for bringing several people back from the dead, for healing numerous others, for casting out demons, for walking on water, for manifesting food and wine, and animals, for being clairvoyant… he had been doing it all since childhood.

Jesus the infant

I really enjoy celebrating the birth of this luminous being during this, the darkest time of the year. I love thinking about the infant Jesus and his mother, Mary, nursing him. I love to think about the angels who heralded his birth and the wise men who visited with their metaphysical gifts.

I don’t care that we don’t know exactly everything about his life and times or when exactly he was born. I don’t care that the stories have been misunderstood or misinterpreted. I just love that the world tries kindness and love and forgiveness for a while; that the vibration of the planet rises.

I don’t care what the tradition is or when it developed or where it came from. I like it all: the pagan candles, the gnostic meditations, the Christian carols, the American movies, the Australian kangaroos who pull Santa’s sleigh; the German trees covered in snow; the nativity scenes in the desert.

I love it all, because it all reminds me of the birth of this extraordinary being. When I am reminded, it inspires me to work towards being more like him.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these…

- Jesus (John 14:12)