Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Many admire his spiritual teachings;
some go further and claim him as the messiah, while a few deny he
ever existed at all. But everyone has an opinion about this obscure
preacher who lived his brief life in one of the less significant
regions of the Roman Empire; and who, in being crucified, died the
traditional death for criminals and trouble-makers. Jesus lived in
turbulent times. Under Roman rule, Judea was a hotbed of
nationalist, political and religious interests, all vying for
power. Jesus was caught in the middle of these, allied to none and
ultimately reviled by all. 'My kingdom is not of this world, ' he
said, though he agreed taxes should be paid to the Romans. 'Give to
Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.' He taught simply
but challengingly, advocating love for our enemies, a spirit of
forgiveness and respect for children. What else was new about
Jesus? He spoke of a new way of being which he called 'the kingdom
of God.' This was not a place but an inner state, and the doorway
to this kingdom was trust in a heavenly father. As he would often
say: 'Have anxiety about nothing.' It was a trust Jesus himself
required in a life full of conflict; not least with his family who
largely disowned him. 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?' he
famously asked when they attempted to rein him in. In
'Conversations with Jesus of Nazareth', the questions are imagined,
but the words of Jesus are not; they are authentically his, taken
from the various records of his life in the gospels of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John and Thomas. Jesus himself never wrote anything
down, but in a culture of oral transmission, his words, deeds and
stories were well-remembered, and it's not hard to see why. 'It's
the shape of our heart which Jesus is interested in, ' says Simon
Parke. 'This is what comes across when talking with him. It's not
what we do that matters, but who we are, and that's why he upset
the religious people of his day: he didn't give them anything to
hide behind. He's not always easy company, I agree, but his life
and his words - they have the undoubted ring of truth.'
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