Today marks what many believe to be Jesus’ birthday… People all around the world will celebrate “The Messiah” who is the unequivocal central figure in modern Christianity.
Regardless of your faith or religious beliefs, Jesus Christ is unquestionably recognized as one of the most influential figures in world history…
As of 10 years ago there were 2.168 billion people (approximately 31.5% of the population) that identified themselves as Christians and a mind blowing 70% of the western world!Â
The question we need to explore here in this morning’s Christmas Daily Hustle is how is it that one man could have that great of a lasting impact nearly 2000 years after his existence on earth?Â
Lets dive in. 🏊‍♂️Â
What we know…Â
Jesus of Nazareth is the son of Mary and was said to be conceived by the Holy Spirit through Immaculate Conception…Â
Jesus was born sometime between 7BC and 2BC in Bethlehem during the reign of King Herod who was threatened by a prophecy and ordered the killing of all male babies under the age of 2… Needless to say, Mary and Joseph grabbed little baby Jesus and got the f*ck out of dodge.
Jesus was a Galilean Jew and at the age of 30 he was baptized by John the Baptist who then declared Jesus the son of God…
After 40 days and 40 nights in the Judean desert, Jesus started his own ministry and chose 12 disciples to help spread the word on how to best honor God…Â
The gospel in the New Testament recorded at least 37 miracles that Jesus performed including raising at least 3 people from the dead, feeding 5,000 men with limited resources, and of course possibly his most valuable asset, turning water into wine! 🍷Â
Jesus was eventually arrested by the Jewish authorities and tried for several things which included performing miracles on the sabbath… Guess they took working on Sunday’s pretty seriously back then. 🤦‍♂️
The Jewish authorities turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate and the Romans who ordered the crucifixion… It has been said that Pilate was reluctant to sentence Jesus and some say Pilate was riddled with guilt and even converted to Christianity before his eventual death.Â
Jesus was nailed to a cross, and died about 6 hours later… With the permission of Pilate, Joseph and Nicodemus buried Jesus in one of those kick ass gigantic rich dudes tombs…Â
According to the gospels, 3 days later Mary Magdalene swung by the grave site only to find it empty… She then encountered a couple angels who informed her that Jesus had risen… Jesus then appeared to Mary and many of his other followers over the next 40 days before making his ascension to heaven.
With the help of the apostles, Christianity spread rapidly in Jerusalem and was originally accepted by the Jewish people… In the New Testament, Jesus was referred to as “The King Of The Jews” at both the beginning and end of his life, so it made perfect sense to align with his tribe…Â
Yet Jesus and the Christianity message was eventually rejected by much of the Jewish population, which forced the apostles to preach to the non Jewish sect. This inclusion led to a mass following and Christianity eventually becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Religious beliefs aside, here are just 3 of the many lessons I believe we can ALL take away from the story of Jesus Christ and the rise of Christianity…Â
- Your inner circle MATTERS – Without the Apostles and without the New Testament, Jesus’ life and experiences would never have been documented… Like they say in “Hamilton,” we don’t have control over who lives, who dies or who tells our story, but we can always do everything possible to surround ourselves with the right SQUAD…
- Include EVERYONE – By including non Jews, Christianity became available to all people and has lived long past the 1st century… When we live a life of acceptance and inclusion, our reach and our impact is infinite…
- FORGIVE – While nailed to the cross Jesus said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Here is a guy that is in the process of dying a slow and excruciating death and at the forefront of his mind is forgiving those who are in the process of killing him. We as human beings will make many mistakes throughout the course of our lives and our ability to forgive others will directly affect our ability LET GO and charge forward with our lives… Our forgiveness of others will also inevitably allow us to forgive our beautifully imperfect selves…
Happy B Day Jesus… You’ve had a helluva IMPACT my dude. đź‘Š
-EB
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P.S. Have you hopped on a Team GoHard Foot Reflexology Board yet?
