It was a true story, yet one so unlikely as to seem a far-fetched work of fiction. Who would ever dream of a young prince learning to crawl and stand and walk in abject poverty, though descended from royalty on both his mother’s side of the family and his adoptive father’s? And to make the story all the more remarkable, the family of this prince had been out of power for nearly 600 years and seems to have dwindled down to a mere handful of surviving members. And not only was the family poor, struggling just to make ends meet, their entire nation was actually now a conquered people, the tributary subjects of the mighty Roman Empire.
The needs of the family were met through sweat and sawdust. There was nary a scepter to be found on the property, but there were awls and saws and hammers; each day’s work brought callouses and splinters, not comfort and splendor.
Jesus’ mother, Mary, and his adoptive father, Joseph, hailed from Nazareth, way up north in Galilee. It was decidedly “the other side of the tracks” in Israel. It was crime-ridden, interspersed with gentiles, and a veritable den of iniquity. It was so notable for its villainy that a man named Nathanael later asked, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
To put it mildly, humanly speaking, Jesus had nothing going for him. Formal education? No, not that either. When the leaders of his people, in stunned amazement, asked, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” it was an indication that Jesus never got to attend the schools where formal learning in the laws and traditions of their people was dispensed. A comfy little home he could retire to? No, not even that. In his own words, he did not even have a place to lay his head.
He was further saddled with a family scandal that wasn’t. In John 8:41, we learn that the inevitable came about due to his virgin birth; his mother was accused of fornicating with some unknown man, making Jesus illegitimate. Imagine everyone’s surprise, then, when this tainted, untrained, carpenter-turned-evangelist from seedy Nazareth gathered a handful of men about him and launched into a public ministry! This truly was something that, under normal circumstances, should have quickly come crashing down in abject failure. And to hear some tell it, that is exactly what happened. This man, whose long-passed royal history made a mockery of his impoverished condition, found himself tagged as a felon and even accused of treason.
The trial was swift and the end brutal. He was not merely executed; he was intentionally shamed and tormented. He was turned into a cruel joke. He was blindfolded and punched in the face, with the soldiers doling out the abuse, seeing if he could name who it was that hit him. They spit in his face as well. They beat him to ribbons with the flagellum. Then they nailed him to a cross, either naked or nearly so, allowing people to point and leer and make fun of him. There was no more shameful way to die, and everyone knew it. And when he said, “It is finished!” those who put him to this death doubtless hoped that it was, not even realizing they were thinking of two different things.
Three days later, they began to figure it out when the soldiers came running back into town to tell of his resurrection. Their silence on the matter was purchased by very serious money, though, so that this “Jesus problem” could hopefully be laid to rest anyway. And why shouldn’t it be? Reports of the resurrection notwithstanding, he was, for all human purposes, a nobody, an uneducated pauper from the slums and a condemned criminal. His handful of followers were all scattered; his life would dissipate like a puff of breath into the cold darkness of winter.
Only that isn’t what happened. Jesus of Nazareth, fully God and fully man, went on to become the most consequential life in human history, and the contest is not even remotely close. Our calendar, conveniently divided into B.C. and A.D., stands for “before Christ,” and anno Domini, which is a Latin phrase meaning “In the year of our Lord.” Even modern attempts at rebranding the calendar with BCE and CE (before the common era and common era) conveniently line up exactly, date for date, with the B.C. and A.D. calendar, reminding us again of that one life that brought it all about.
The book that tells his story, the Bible, is the most well-known and widely circulated book in human history. Thirty years ago, the figure stood at about 5 billion copies, and that figure was probably substantially low since the Bible rolls freely off of printing presses everywhere and for centuries has been given away without charge on mission fields around the world.
His Sermon on the Mount is the most famous message in human history. His stunning teaching on loving your enemies and his command that his followers go everywhere evangelizing the world, baptizing converts and instructing those new believers in the teachings of Scripture have radically changed entire societies.
It is nearly impossible to go into a city and not find a hospital attached to some Christian denomination, rescue missions for those out in the cold and soup kitchens for the hungry, all operating in his name; Jesus ministers to bodies, not just souls. Churches stand on most every corner worshiping him still and ministering to nearly every conceivable need of everyone who walks through the doors. The babe of Bethlehem transcended every obstacle and rose to tower above every king, prime minister and president who has ever lived. His is the most consequential life Earth has ever known.
Not bad for a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, North Carolina, a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and at wordofhismouth.com. Email him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.