Who is Jesus?

If you’ve watched The King of Kings, the new animated movie about a young boy and his father, Charles Dickens, on an imaginative journey through the life of Jesus Christ, you may have questions.

Who was Jesus? What was his mission? Did his nonviolent revolution pay off? And why would anyone think of a crucified carpenter as king?

The Jesus biography

How do we even know about Jesus?

Plato wrote The Republic. Julius Caesar wrote The Gallic Wars. Their books provide evidence of their existence, their ideas and their actions. Jesus left no writings to posterity.

Others have written about him. Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, refers to him. Some Roman writers allude to him. But there’s more.

Jesus in the Gospels

The Gospels were written after Jesus’ public ministry. They reflect eyewitness accounts and stories about him which were circulating among his early followers.

There are four Gospels. They portray Jesus as the Son of God. In other words, people who met him in person couldn’t have got any closer to God if they tried. The King of Kings was God in human form.

A bold claim.

King of Kings

Jesus grew up in Galilee, which is where he began his public ministry. He kept talking about God’s Kingdom being just round the corner. The people who heard him – fishermen, traders, farmers, religious leaders – pricked up their ears. Most of them weren’t too keen on being ruled by the Romans. They were proud to be Jewish and part of God’s people.

They could have been forgiven, though, for wondering whether God had forgotten them. After all, this had previously been their country. God’s country. Their ancestors had been free. But tough foreign rulers had been in charge for nearly a century.

And suddenly their fellow-Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, was talking about God restoring his rule. This could only mean one thing: the Messiah, God’s special envoy, was about to free them from Rome.

And when Jesus started to heal the sick and say and do things no mortal had ever managed to say or do, people started to put two and two together. Jesus was no ordinary man. Was he the Messiah, the king of kings?

Mission misfired?

When Jesus went southward, leaving Galilee and heading towards Jerusalem, people were already waiting for him to confront the foreign rulers and drive them out of their land. Crowds greeted him as he entered Jerusalem. He caused a stir in the temple. A promising start. But nothing else happened. In fact, within a few days, Jesus ended up in court and was sentenced to death.

Taking on evil

He knew all along that his mission would enrage the religious and political powers that be. The death of Jesus was no accident. He knew what he was doing.

As he hung on a Roman cross, it looked as though his enemies had won. In reality, though, Jesus was taking on evil. Not the temporary evil of Roman occupation. Not the petty opposition of the religious elite who felt threatened by his popularity. Jesus had bigger fish to fry. He voluntarily gave his life, absorbing the collective evil that haunts the human condition. All along, he never resorted to violence. He remained the king who served us to the end.

Easter day

The Gospels not only speak of Jesus’ extraordinary life and death but of his return from the grave. His resurrection is the big counternarrative to the seemingly never-ending cycle of violence and death, which is rearing its head once again as military campaigns, trade wars and culture wars rage in our day. More often than not, confrontation seems to be king. But God has other ideas. He sent Jesus, who showed us how to live: the king who came not to be served but to serve.

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