Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Yeshua m'N'zareth was born on or around May 1st, 0006 C.E. during the governorship of Quirinius over Syria, the reign of Caesar Augustus over the Roman Empire, and most likely the last days of the rule of Herod Archelaus. He was born during the census of Quirinius in 6 CE when the Kingdom of Judea was divided by the empire into Iudaea, Samaria, Galilaia, the Decapolis, and the coastal cities with Caesarea as the local seat of imperial power. He was crucified on April 3rd, 0033 CE.
From the DNA testing on the blood samples taken from His burial cloth, he shared a common ancestry with the modern Druze population that live near present day Nazareth in Israel through his mother. His blood type was AB. From an analysis of the image on that shroud, he was 5'8" tall give or take.
Most importantly, he existed in history. While there are many stories and many assumptions about Him, the fact remains that He was and remains a real person who lived in the early first century. He was really born. He really taught, and He really left an impact on everyone who heard and knew Him.
The man Himself was no myth, and HIs disciples passed down His teachings both orally and in writing, teaching others to follow His Way of living. We know this from both their writings and the writings their own students left behind.
It is this Jesus, the very real, very historical human being that I choose to follow, chasing Him down as best I can to separate Him from all other versions of myth, legend, and outright fabrication. It is this Jesus who rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees, the political and religious leaders who had previously driven Judea into a civil war. It is this Jesus who ate with outcasts, taught voluntary poverty, detachment, and love for all others no matter who they were. It is this Jesus who prayed for His disciples to be one with Himself, the God and Father, and each other, and taught them how to live in that union. It is this Jesus whose coin covered eyes watch us hauntingly from the photographic negative of His burial shroud.
Sometimes, I think that many Christians forget He is no myth. Sometimes I think they like their own version of Jesus, whatever that may be, instead of the photographic and DNA evidence of the man whose image was burned into the very tips of the fibers of His burial shroud by the intense, split-second flash of coherent light emanating from His corpse as it vanished from its folds on April 5th, 33 CE. I think they prefer the comfort of being able to control the narrative of their version of Jesus better than the narrative of the Man with genetic ties to ancient Nazareth whose face and image stares at us still two thousand years later.
No matter what anyone says about Him, no matter how they might try and obfuscate, corrupt, twist, or invent Him all over again, or just pretend He never existed at all because they're so angry at "Christians;" no matter any of this, He is no myth. He is not a myth or a legend which belongs to Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Orthodox, or any other religious sect. He wasn't European, He wasn't African, he wasn't whatever you want Him to be. He was an almost 28 year old, Syriac and Greek speaking Middle Eastern man with ancestry near Nazareth and culturally first century Judean who walked the length and breadth of first century Roman Judea, Galilee, Samaria, the Decapolis, and the Coastline for almost three years teaching and demonstrating love, compassion, and how a human being is supposed to live, who was arrested by his own religious and political leaders and railroaded into being crucified by the governing authority under threat of riots. His birth was no myth. His death was no myth. And, as His burial shroud remains empty to this day and only one event could have caused the three dimensional image of His corpse to have imprinted on it, His resurrection was no myth either. A person may scream and cry and shout about it all they want. These facts remain true.
And because He is no myth, He is the Man whom I will strive to emulate, mimic, and be like. He is the Man that I have taken oaths to. Not someone's interpretation of Him, not someone's version of Him, the historical Man Himself.
Because He is no myth.
