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12<h2>This Man Jesus</h2>
13<hr>
14<p>Who was this Jesus, anyway? We really know very little about him.
15Our main sources are four books, written decades after his death,
16which devote about a third of their space to the last week of his
17life. The gospel writers were not so much interested in history as in
18theology. But the picture that emerges from what little we do know
19about Jesus reveals a fascinating individual.</p>
20
21<p>Most likely born into a middle class family and brought up as a
22skilled tradesman, Jesus could have made a good life working as a
23carpenter like his father Joseph. Instead, after being dunked in the
24Jordan River by an itinerant preacher/prophet named John, Jesus left the
25family business and disappeared into the desert.</p>
26
27<p>He returned forty days later with a message, "The Kingdom of God
28is at hand." Many Jews at the time were looking for a Messiah to
29throw off the oppression of the Roman Empire and institute the
30Kingdom of God, but Jesus came with a different mission: "To bring
31good news to the poorhellip;to proclaim release of the captives and
32recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to
33proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19) Though some
34of his would-be followers urged him to set up his kingdom&mdash;with
35themselves as his trusted advisors, of course&mdash;he confounded them
36with statements like, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things
37that can be observed&hellip;in fact, the kingdom of God is among you."
38(Luke 17:20-21)</p>
39
40<p>Jesus never owned a home; he never ventured beyond walking distance
41of the place he was born; he quit his job at age thirty and never had
42a steady income again. By today's standards, he would be considered a
43failure or a dropout. In his own time he was thought to be a
44troublemaker, and was arrested and executed for it.</p>
45
46<p>But his story does not end there.</p>
47<hr>
48<h3>The Resurrection</h3>
49<p class="quote">The third day he rose from the dead<br>
50He ascended into heaven<br>
51And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;<br>
52From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.<br></i>
53 - The Apostles' Creed</p>
54
55<p>The resurrection of Jesus is the centerpiece of Christian belief.
56What do Christians mean when we talk about the resurrection? The
57gospels mention an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene reported to the apostles
58that Jesus had risen from the dead.  The early opponents of the church
59scoffed, suggesting that the body had been stolen, or that Mary had
60mistakenly visited the wrong tomb, or even that Jesus was not quite
61dead when he was taken down from the cross, and had simply awakened
62and departed.</p>
63
64<p>However, shortly after the tomb was found empty, Jesus' followers
65reported seeing him in various places&mdash;on the seashore, inside a
66locked room, on the road to a nearby town&mdash;but they didn't always
67recognize him. One disciple, Thomas, even expressed doubt to Jesus' face
68that it was really him. But somehow, Jesus was able to work a
69transformation in the lives of his followers that he hadn't been able to
70before his death.  They began to stand up to the authorities, to preach
71the message despite being threatened, even to follow Jesus in dying for
72their faith.</p>
73
74<p>It is in the apostle Paul that the work of the risen Christ is the
75most dramatic. Paul's first encounter with Christ happened one day as he
76was traveling to Damascus. Without warning he saw a blinding light and
77heard a voice. Though his traveling companions were unaffected,
78Paul's life was forever changed. He went from
79being an enemy of the church to being its most vocal promoter. He
80traveled to places where Christ was not known, and established new
81churches.  He was arrested more than once, but he kept preaching even in
82prison.  Ultimately, he too was put to death for his teaching.</p>
83
84<p>Through the centuries, many others have had their lives transformed
85through encounters with Christ.  The transformation doesn't always begin
86with a blinding light, it doesn't always happen suddenly, and it doesn't
87usually result in a death sentence these days, but the change that it
88produces is real and lifelong.  And the transformation that God works in
89a person's life is the true meaning of the resurrection.</p>
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