The Life of Jesus

The Life of Jesus as told in the book Jesus: A Biography of a Believer by Paul Johnson. This episode was originally published on Christmas Eve 2023.

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  Jesus was, in terms of his influence, the most important human being in history. He is also the most written about and discussed. The earliest surviving document dealing with him was circulated in the 50s of the first century AD. Within a half a century of his death, four biographies, written in Greek, had been published, and all have come down to us, meaning they've survived. Since then, entire books about him have been published in growing quantity and in all languages. Today, there are over 100,000 printed biographies of Jesus in English alone. The religion which commemorates Jesus's teachings, death and resurrection, was well-established in half a dozen countries by AD 50.

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  The first Christian place of worship dates from about AD 50, and now, nearly 1 million chapels, churches, basilicas, abbeys, and cathedrals include many of the largest, most remarkable, and beautiful buildings ever erected. In many ways, and in cultural and moral respects especially, Jesus's life and the faith it created are the central events in the history of humanity. So far, we have considered the influence of Jesus as man, but I believe that he was and is God too. It is futile for us to inquire about the nature of Jesus and God and his preexistence from the beginning, since that is unknowable, let alone the future, which is still hidden from us.

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  What we can do, however, is write about Jesus the man. The problem with writing about the life of Jesus the man is not so much the paucity of sources, as their abundance, and the difficulty in reaching behind the written text to the full meanings of sayings and episodes. The sketch that follows reflects many years of reading and historical study. My objects have been clarity and brevity, and my desire is to convey the joy and nourishment that I receive in following Jesus's footsteps and pondering his words.

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  That is an excerpt from the book I'm going to talk to you about today, which is "Jesus: A Biography From a Believer," and it was written by Paul Johnson. So I want to immediately jump into some background that Paul gives you and I, which will help understand the society, really the world into which Jesus was born into. He says, "It was harsh, cruel, violent, and unstable. It was also materialistic and increasingly wealthy. Rome was in the process of transforming itself from a republic into an empire. Rome now occupied all of Italy and Spain, as well as Greece and Egypt, and what we now call Turkey. Between 50 to 60 million people came under its laws." Fifty years before Jesus was born, Julius Caesar had added the whole of Gaul, which would be modern France, to the Roman Empire.

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  "The expanding empire was based upon muscle rather than technology, thanks to about 15 million slaves, who constituted one-third of its population, and whose life was summed up by Aristotle in four words: work, punishment, and food." As you probably already know, I'm a huge fan of Paul Johnson's writing. I've read and made podcasts on a bunch of biographies that he's written, like on Winston Churchill, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Socrates, Mozart, Picasso, Disney. I'll leave all those linked in the show notes in case you want to check out those other episodes. But one of the things I love about his writing is the way he's able to use contrast to drive home a point. And you see that here because he's going to compare who is ruling the area in which Jesus is going to be born into

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  with really the main lessons that Jesus the Man taught. And so he talks about the ruler at the time being Herod the Great. "For more than 30 years, this astute financier had made himself the richest individual in the entire empire, but he was still subservient to the rulers of Rome. He made himself master of the ancient kingdom, and he was the greatest builder of his age. So he built shipping ports. He rebuilt the temporal Jerusalem. He built a bunch of public baths and aqueducts, and what we would call today shopping centers in more than a dozen cities. But he was also a monster. He had numerous wives and concubines, and sired many children. He was suspicious and cruel, and he slaughtered over 40 of his wives.

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  He killed over 40 of his wives, children, and close relatives." And this is the contrast point that I was referencing earlier. The last year of his life was the year of Jesus's birth.

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  Jesus was most constantly referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, Nazareth being this small Galilean town that he grew up in. He's estimated to be born somewhere around 4 B.C. Nazareth at this time was home to many small workshops and craftsmen. One of these craftsmen was Joseph, who was a carpenter. Joseph was a prosperous tradesman, or the way you and I would talk about that is that he was a good entrepreneur. And then he takes as his bride, as his wife, Mary. This is a description of Jesus's childhood. There was great piety in their home. There was much praying, and the Jewish feast and practices were meticulously observed. Every year, at the Feast of Passover, they went up to Jerusalem to make a sacrifice in the temple.

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  So by the time that Jesus is 12 years old, they think that he's old enough to wander around Jerusalem by himself, exploring. They usually do this trip with a bunch of other people. So a few days later, they wind up leaving and heading back home. They get about a day's journey away when they realize that Jesus was not in their group, that he was lost, and this frightened Mary because she realized that he was left behind in what they called a holy and wicked city. And for three days, they cannot find him. On the third day, they find him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the elders, both hearing them and asking them questions. And it says, "And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and his answers." And it is in this exchange where we get Jesus's first recorded words. It says, "Mary rebuked him for his thoughtlessness, and she said,

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  'Son, why have you treated us so? We have been searching for you in great distress.'" And this is Jesus's reply. He said, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?" So there's a couple of interesting things here. One, depending on the translation, and this is really what we'll talk a lot, talk a lot about, is the fact that the way to think about Jesus is to think about him as a teacher. In his teachings, he uses questions a lot. Depending on the translation, there's over 300 different questions just in the four Gospels alone. It is interesting that the first recorded words that we get from Jesus is actually in the form of a question. And then after this, Paul Johnson writes, "It is striking that these first recorded words of Jesus are of peace with his entire life and mission. He must be about God's business."

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  And that is the extent of what we know about Jesus's childhood. The Gospels then skip the next 18 years of Jesus's life, and they don't pick back up until he's being baptized by St. John, John the Baptist. And this is what Paul Johnson writes. "It is a somber and unwelcome fact that for more than half of Jesus's life, we know absolutely nothing about what he did, or where he went, or how he lived. All we know is that his story picks up around, he's around 30 years of age, and it's very clear that he's a man of wide knowledge. We must assume that Jesus was self-taught in many respects. His words and concepts betray absolutely no sign of academic defamation or the impress of a system. Being an autodidact, he was dismissed by his critics as uneducated.

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  And so there's examples where the educated or the ruling elite hear him speak, and they say stuff like this. How did this man get such learning without having been taught? Jesus possessed broad knowledge, especially of trade and agriculture. This is made clear by his confident and expert references to those practical matters in his sayings and parables. Jesus had a huge range, one reason why so many people love to listen to him. But I suspect that his knowledge reflected actual experience. The death of Joseph, which occurred during his missing years, led to the breakup of the Nazareth household. His mother, Mary, went to live with one of her numerous family. At that point, it would have been natural for Jesus to leave home and seek experience in a wider world." But Paul makes the point that this is just his opinion

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  based on his readings and studies, because he says there is no means of knowing what he did. "This then is what we know of Jesus's birth and childhood, and what we can reasonably guess about his life from 12 to 30. At that point, he began his ministry and entered the full glare of evangelical record." And so important because we have the most documentation, but this is also what I want to focus on the most, which is what was Jesus teaching? What did he believe? And what did he go around teaching up until the time of his death? So the little background here is that Judaism in the time of Jesus was ripe for reformation, just like Christianity was in the early 16th century. The alternative teaching that Jesus did at this time, this is what it was about. The alternative was a spiritual revolution, one based on love and neighborliness,

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  which could be embraced by all classes and all people. So John the Baptist was also teaching the need for reformation. Some people believe that John the Baptist was Jesus's cousin. Paul is one of those people that believe that John the Baptist was Jesus's cousin. There is some people that dispute that. But in any case, what's not for dispute is that John was also teaching the need for reformation. The importance of being baptized was also drawing huge crowds and the attention of authorities. What is also not in dispute is that he played a large role in the mission of Jesus. You could almost interpret it like John's life mission was to help launch Jesus's mission. And so Jesus requested that John baptize him, and this is why. Jesus was adamant that he must go through the ceremony of renewal. He was stressing the universality of the sacrament,

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  the need for every human being to wash off the stains of the past and to become fresh and new and clean. It was the actual, as well as the symbolic, beginning of his mission. The baptism of Jesus was also the culmination of John's own mission, because John is speaking out against the authorities and the powerful of his day. History shows that speaking out against the powerful in any age is dangerous and life-threatening. And as a result, John is going to get arrested, and then he is going to be beheaded. And so then Paul combines all the different sources and studying he did to give us an overview of Jesus. He said, "There's no reliable evidence of what Jesus looked like." But there are certain traits that are repeated over and over again.

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  So Jesus was observant, detail-oriented. Several people commented on the intense eye contact that he would do. He was confident, decisive, charismatic. The authority that he exercised was there from the beginning. He did not need to acquire it. It was innate. And one of the first important acts that Jesus did was choose the 12 apostles. So the apostles were a group of 12 individuals chosen by Jesus to be his closest followers and witnesses to his teachings. Jesus knew he was starting something new. And as you and I have discussed in other contexts a ton of times before, the first and most important step when starting anything is recruiting the people who are going to help you on your mission. And so not only are they going to help him on his mission and help spread his teaching, but they also keep him physically safe.

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  So before he had the 12 apostles, he begins teaching and the people in Nazareth immediately become violent. Because remember, what he is teaching is in direct conflict with what they believe. And so here's a summary of that. The Nazarenes react with violent anger. A mob physically ejects Jesus from the synagogue and takes him to a nearby cliff. Their intent is lethal. So they're trying to throw him off a cliff to his death because he is teaching something that conflicts with what they already believe. There is a lot of lessons of human nature in this story, timeless lessons of human nature in this story. And so Jesus is able to escape. And it says, "It was there that he chose his first followers, sturdy fishermen, strong

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  and resourceful, to stand around him and protect him when his words angered the self-righteous orthodoxy." And there's a standalone line that Jesus says that I feel has a lot of wisdom in it. "No prophet is acceptable in his hometown." Let's go to what Jesus was telling the 12 apostles. Jesus insisted that the group come with him full time. This mission is only for the fully committed. That is the note I left myself as I'm reading all this. And then I went and actually defined it. The definition of committed. Feeling dedication and loyalty to a cause, activity or job, wholeheartedly dedicated. That is exactly what Jesus demands. Jesus was adamant that the men he called must put their mission first.

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  He admitted that his work would cause dissension within their families. Jesus stressed the absolutist nature of a vocation to serve him. It involved painful choices. Jesus had just narrowly escaped death at the hands of angry bigots and was never in any doubt about the danger of his mission. The 12 people he picked were special. They had particular functions and were given powers to carry them out. They were the earliest people enlisted in Jesus's mission. He would sometimes give them nicknames or rename them. I just thought this part was funny. James and John were brothers whom Jesus called the sons of thunder because of their enthusiasm. Thus was Jesus's mission prepared for and organized. What was his object? At whom was it aimed? And what were its methods?

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  Again, this is not very different than the other people that you and I have studied on the podcast. What we're trying to figure out, like, what are they trying to do? What's their object? Who are they trying to do it for? Who was it aimed at? And what were their methods? How did they accomplish the goal they set out? And of course, how recruiting a team of special people to help you with your mission is of utmost importance. And so there's a couple of examples spread over a few pages that I think are really important to spend some time on. And it's this idea that starting anything, starting anything, requires an act of faith. Jesus wanted to convince you or to persuade you through reason. And he hated to be looked at like some kind of holy magician. I think is the term that Paul Johnson uses later in the book. And you'll see this through some of his actions, which I'll get to in one second. Hopefully, this makes sense in a minute.

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  Jesus makes it clear that it is preferable that men show faith by listening to the truth and by accepting it and following it, rather than by waiting for signs and miracles to convince them. Jesus taught that the truth was reasonable, that goodness made sense, that to follow his teaching was a rational thing to do. And he'll demonstrate this because there's a lot of examples. Like, I was asking myself this question as I was reading this. Like, why did Jesus repeat his desire to keep any kind of healings private? And there's example after example. So I'm just going to go over a bunch of pages. And I just pulled out a bunch of individual sentences that show you this. Jesus charged them that they should tell no man. Another example, as a rule, when moved to cure, he took trouble that no one knew.

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  He told them, do not go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town. He preferred to cure the afflicted away from public view. Another example, Jesus straightly charged them, saying, "See that no man knows this, or knows of this." And so after several pages of examples like this, Paul Johnson gives us a great summary of what's going on. He wanted to avoid at all costs being known as a miracle worker. He detested being thought of as a kind of holy magician. But sometimes publicity was unavoidable, and it could be dangerous, as well as irksome, to a profoundly thoughtful man and speaker who was eager to convey his message by reason and not by signs. And so Jesus is going to travel around and teach continuously for three years up until his death. And they make the point that you think about it as teaching, not as preaching.

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  It says, "Taught is more accurate." He taught often in response to what he saw or heard, or to questions from people in the crowd. He was teaching all the time. The only other times that he was not teaching is when either he was resting or he was praying, and he insisted on praying in solitude. And so it says, "He was teaching even at mealtimes, for Jesus was convivial." That word, "convivial," is used, I think, three or four times in the book. It means a person that is cheerful and friendly and jovial. And he loved to teach when people were relaxed and enjoying their food and companionship. I calculate that Jesus, in three years, must have taught on as many as 400 different occasions when crowds gathered, as well as scores of other times when an informal opportunity arose.

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  So what did Jesus teach? Jesus taught that life was to be devoted to self-transformation. He produced a series of precepts known as beatitudes, which taught, which he taught as a guide through life and its material problems. There's eight of them. I'm just going to give you like a summary of what some of those lessons were. And some of the things they emphasized, they emphasized the importance of humility, gentleness, and non-aggression. The importance of the pursuit of justice and righteousness. He encourages acts of compassion and forgiveness towards others. He focuses on inner purity, sincerity, and genuine heart. He commends those who work towards reconciliation, harmony, and peace. And he acknowledges the challenges faced by those who stand for what is right and just.

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  These beatitudes teach a perspective on blessedness that often contrasts with the world's conventional ideas of success and happiness. And this is such an important sentence. "This was tough teaching, hard to follow, and entirely new. It had no equivalent in the Old Testament or any of the pious wisdom literature of the ancient Near East, and Jesus followed it with still more difficult maxims." A few examples of those. Love your enemies; do good to them which hate you; bless them that curse you. Another one. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Above all, he told them, hesitate to criticize other people. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.

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  Jesus taught that inner sentiments mattered. Jesus stressed that evil feelings allowed to develop unrestrained led to major sins. It had always been obvious that killing was wrong, he argued, but I say that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause was also sin. So again, going back to inner sentiments mattered. He also said it was wrong to abuse or swear at another person. Many of Jesus's sayings have become maxims familiar to us from childhood, but they were startlingly new in his day. They provoked thought, astonishment, often anger, fear, and doubt, which leads to his death, and excitement. And really, a lot of these sayings are spread across a bunch of different pages. You can almost summarize what he's saying in two words: be kind. And an illustration of that is, he was asked, Jesus's response to this question was, what

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  is the great commandment? And he actually combines two ideas here, and I'll translate it. It says, "Love God with everything you have, and then love every other person." He added, "There is none other commandment greater than these." He believed that doing those two together was the center of a good life. So, "Love God with everything you have, and love every other person. There is none other commandment greater than these." When Jesus was asked, "Who is my neighbor?" Because he kept saying, like, "You have to love your neighbor, you have to be good to your neighbor." So, okay, well, who is my neighbor? His answer was, "Everyone." He turned compassion, this is a really fascinating sentence, "He turned compassion, which all of us feel from time to time for a particular person, into a huge overarching gospel of love." He taught the love of mankind as a whole.

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  Love of mankind as a whole did not exist in Jesus's day as a concept. The intellectual, social, and racial climate of Jesus's day was hostile to this message, this message of loving mankind as a whole. Jesus was a universalist. He said, "I will draw all men to me." He had no home, no country, no race, no characteristics tying him to a tribe, or a nation, or a locality. He was united to all men by love. He was philanthropy incarnate. Why did Paul Johnson just write that, at the end of all this, saying he's a universalist, that he's opening to every single person? He believed you love every single person, that every single person is your neighbor, that you love every single person you encounter, just like you love yourself. He united all men by love.

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  Why did he just say that he was philanthropy incarnate? Because, a few pages prior, he talked about that the love of mankind as a whole is actually, the Greeks have a word for this. And I'm gonna butcher this pronunciation. Philanthropia, which in the English translation is philanthropy. So think about that. The Greeks had a word for this, the love of all mankind, which they called philanthropia, right? And so let's go back to that a few pages later. He was united to all men by love. He was philanthropy, the love of man incarnate, man as a whole, every single human. There was nothing exclusive about Jesus and his teaching. His message was the most inclusive of all such communications. That is some of what he taught.

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  This is how he taught. It's very obvious when you read about him. He's very charismatic, he's poetic, he's persuasive, he's a gifted communicator. Some of his teachings made hard demands and set a high standard of virtue and self-sacrifice. Yet his teaching was mesmeric. He thought and reasoned and spoke as a poet does, in images, flashes of insight, and metaphors from the world of nature. All the time he taught, he was creating little pictures in the minds of the men and women who listened to him. His lessons are rich in metaphor and simile, in vivid comparisons with the world of nature. There are not a half a dozen lines of his teaching without an image, and often, an unforgettable one. Inanimate objects spring to life. Animals are anthropomorphized. I did not pronounce that correctly.

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  Nature teams with purposeful moral activity, and human beings often assume a dignity, a profundity, a pathos. Jesus was a storyteller, and a particular form of storytelling that he favored was the parable. A parable is just a short, like, simple story used to illustrate some kind of usually moral lesson. But what I think is fascinating is up until this point, it talks about the methods that he used that were most effective in teaching. They were most effective in teaching in his day. They are still the most effective in teaching in this day. And that is the combination of maxims and storytelling. Jesus, like all great storytellers, understand that the lessons can't, won't be applied if they aren't remembered. As David Ogilvy famous, he said, "You can't save souls in an empty church."

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  And so two of the parables that Jesus taught that are the most memorable and the ones that usually spread the furthest was the Good Samaritan and the prodigal son. And for the Good Samaritan in particular, he actually told the parable in response to a question that he received, which is, "Who is my neighbor?" And so Paul Johnson writes, "He told it so well and so convincingly that the Good Samaritan has gone down in history and literature and in art and drama as an ideal neighbor to a man in distress." Jesus was illustrating the principle, which was perhaps the most important element in his message. "We are all neighbors, one to another, and our human fellowship depends on kindness and charity, not tribe, or race, or color, or nationality."

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  And a reoccurring theme in all the parables is that Jesus's sympathies lay with the poor, the disenfranchised. We're going to get to this entire chapter where Paul Johnson has Jesus's, like, 10 new commandments. And a lot of it is the fact that if you have the power, if you're in the position of power, use that judiciously. Try to help people. And so he talks about this with a lot of wealthy people, too. "Jesus never made the mistake of supposing that poverty made people virtuous, but he was painfully aware that wealth offered endless opportunities for corruption." Jesus's general point about wealth is that it all depends on what you do with it. Jesus was eager to encourage all those who had wealth to distribute a generous portion of it to the poor.

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  In telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus describes a case where money promotes virtue. The merchant was industrious, this merchant, in the Good Samaritan parable, this merchant was industrious and provident. He did a good trade and used its proceeds to help others as well as his own family. A less successful man might also have felt compassion for the battered traveler, but could have done little about it. I can't remember if it was Charlie Munger or Les Schwab in one of the last few episodes, but in one of those two books, they made the point that the more net worth you have, the more service you can do for others. Let's go back to the importance that Jesus put, the emphasis on the individual. Although Jesus constantly addressed crowds, he spoke directly to each individual who composed them.

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  It was his gift and also his philosophy. Jesus' love of people as individuals was in some ways his most striking characteristic. Jesus was for gentleness, patience, and forbearance. He was hugely intuitive. He disliked any kind of legalism or ponderous logic, preferring the flashes of instant perception and poetry which illuminated his speech. He relied more on emotions and reason to get across a point. In his teaching, he explained in an interesting, luminous way, difficult things by using images from everyday life and work. He was glad to make people interested and happy. And he also trained his apostles to follow in his footsteps and to imitate him. His apostles were expected to go on independent missions, often alone,

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  and to direct the disciples as part of the organization Jesus set up to spread his gospel. So the apostles are the smaller, like, hand-selected 12 people that Jesus chose. Disciples is a broader group of followers or students that also followed and learned from Jesus. But the important part there is the imitation of Jesus' teaching methods. Starts with apostles, spreads to disciples. And then if you go to church today, you still see aspects of that. This is Jesus on the importance of children. He was fascinated by every aspect of the way in which a baby comes into the world and then grows and becomes a delightful child. He brought them into his teaching constantly. He was very observant. Again, that is repeated over and over again. He noted how the delight of a mother in her baby obliterated the pains of childbirth.

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  How the father cuddled his child in bed, and how parents listened to what children said and granted their requests, but only when unharmful. The impulses of children at play interested him, and so did their sorrows. Children were not to be ignored. It was always Jesus' teaching and His profound belief that the study of children had much to tell. I'm with Jesus on this. Children are by far my favorite versions of humans. Right now, I'm going through this with my three-year-old. He is endlessly fascinating to me, and I love this line, "The impulses of children at play interested him." Somewhere along the line, we lose that impulse for play, and the inherent value in it. And I think to that degree and to the others,

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  the study of children has much to tell. And then we get to the chapter called Jesus' New Ten Commandments. This is really fascinating. I'm going to give you my overview of what's taking place on these two pages, and then I'll read some sections to you. Jesus taught to change and improve yourself. He led by example and encouraged imitation. Those that changed themselves changed the world. This is how Paul Johnson puts it. "The revolution was entirely inward, a revolution against selfishness and greed, cruelty and prejudice, anger and lust, a revolution from self-love into love for all and fellowship with everyone." The reborn person would be totally different, and all would be changed. But outwardly, the world would carry on. At the heart of this is the imitation of Jesus,

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  the example of how a person behaves and thinks and speaks. Those that imitate Jesus have made the world a better place, and they lead more fulfilled and happier lives. What Jesus provided by His life was, in effect, a new Ten Commandments. And so I'm going to list out all the commandments. Some of them I'll go into more detail. But the first one is, each of us must develop. So number one, each of us must develop a true personality. Each of us is unique. You must develop your own character. Number two, abide by universality. See the human race as a whole. Number three, the third thing that Jesus taught, respect that we are all equal. Give equal consideration to all.

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  Number four, use love in all of your human relationships at all times and in every situation. Number five, show mercy. And I want to elaborate on this one. I think Paul's elaboration here is interesting. The fifth commandment of Jesus's life concerns mercy. We are to show mercy. Mercy is an emotional word like love. It is hard to define, though instantly recognizable when exercised. Mercy is grace. It is undeserved. Jesus says that if you get the glorious chance to show mercy, do so without forethought or afterthought, without reason or logic, not expecting thanks or even repentance, not

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  to accomplish something in the way of social or personal reform, simply for its own sake. Six, balance. Keep your head even when others are losing theirs. Seven, cultivate an open mind. Jesus's life and death were a struggle against those whose minds were closed. He disliked bigotry in any form and spoke out against it constantly. Eight, pursue truth. Nine, judiciously use your power. The ninth new commandment concerns power, its exercise, and the respect due to the powerless. Exercise your power with restraint and moderation, with mercy, pity, and love. And number 10 is show courage.

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  Jesus showed high courage with endurance of pain and persecution, a sustained heroism in the face of inequity, and a dogged persistence in proclaiming the truth at all costs. And so that brings us to the death of Jesus. Describing it, Paul Johnson says something that's very interesting. He says, "There's more agreement in the sources about the death of Jesus than there is about the assassination of Julius Caesar." I think he means in how it was carried out, not why. Because usually the responsibility of Jesus's death is attributed to usually a combination of factors. Paul's outline in the book essentially is that Jesus is executed on the orders of Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman prefect at the time. Many times, it appeared that Pilate tried to dissuade the crowd and the powerful religious leaders not to execute him.

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  But there's also sources that say Pilate viewed him as a threat to Roman, viewed Jesus as a threat to Roman authority. But we do know there was a definite collaboration between Pontius Pilate and the high priests of the temple, and that they wanted him executed because they regarded him as a threat to their stability in both the religious teachings and also the political order of the day. There is an entire account of these trials in the book. But what I found most interesting is this one paragraph that I think speaks about, teaches us a lesson about human nature. And so in summarizing what Jesus went through during the trials, he says, "What the narratives amount to, in effect, and perhaps in intention, is a bitterly ironic condemnation of human justice. Lying and perjury, prejudice and false witness, an eagerness to take innocent life, but a

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  determination to avoid any responsibility by passing the decision to others. Cowardice on all sides, and not without a vile touch of frivolity. These were the salient characteristics of the trials of Jesus." And so Jesus is ordered to be crucified. It says, "Jesus was compelled to carry the heavy cross on which he was to be crucified to the place of execution. You can walk the path today through the narrow streets of old Jerusalem. Jesus, weak from shock from a loss of blood and having had no sleep and having been subjected to various cruelties, stumbled three times under his burden. He was nailed to the cross." And so for one second, I want to put the book down and then read this description of what crucifixion was like.

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  Crucifixion is a form of execution where a person is affixed to a wooden cross or stake and left to die. It was a method of capital punishment used by various ancient civilizations, and was intended to be a particularly cruel and public form of execution. The process typically involved a person being nailed to the cross, with nails driven through the wrists or hands, and sometimes through the feet. This method of execution caused immense suffering and pain as the victim would gradually suffocate due to the inability to support their own weight while hanging on the cross. Death from crucifixion was often slow and agonizing. Crucifixion was not only a means of inflicting physical torment, but also served as a deterrent,

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  and it was usually carried out in a highly visible place to intimidate and discourage others from committing crimes or challenging authority. And that brings us to the end of the life of Jesus and the first time in the conversation today, where the story splits from believers to non-believers. If you're a Christian, then you believe that his death was followed by resurrection, the crucifixion and the resurrection being the cornerstone of the Christian faith. And that's certainly what the author Paul Johnson believes, but even if you're not a believer, Paul does an excellent job of why it is still valuable to study and learn from the life of Jesus. Palestine in the first century AD was a land crowded, just as our earth is crowded, with a multiracial, multi-religious population.

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  The people believed themselves to be civilized. In practice, it was corrupt, mendacious, grossly inefficient, and cruel. It was run by men who were plainly inadequate and sometimes monsters. Amid all this teeming humanity is the gregarious, friendly figure of Jesus, always there, teaching, listening, and talking with people of all kinds. Occasionally, he was stern. Once or twice, he showed righteous anger, but he was usually soft-spoken, ingenious. He was a fascinating, irresistible figure, radiating love, benevolent, forgiving, talking always of mercy, and smiling often.

• 33:21Speaker 00

  He was a serious man nonetheless, one who spoke with authority, a man to respect. He was clearly a man who, despite his meekness, challenged official authority, so they had him watched. Always at his elbow were agents, spies, informers, and provokers. Jesus lived in a cruel, unthinking world, and his life and death formed an eloquent protest against it. He offered an alternative, not an outward life of revolution and reform, but an inner life of humility and love, of generosity and mercy, of forgiveness and hope.

• 34:00Speaker 00

  We live in a cruel world too. So Jesus's alternative is still relevant. If Jesus were to appear again today, we can be sure not only that he would find countless followers, but equally that he would be persecuted and killed. That is why his biography, in our terrifying 21st century, is so important. We must study it and learn.