Jesus of Nazareth was born around 4 BCE in the Roman province of Judea — a Jewish carpenter's son from an insignificant town. He never wrote a book. He never led an army. He never held political office. He was executed at roughly age 33. And yet, within three centuries, the religion founded in his name became the official faith of the Roman Empire.
How do we know about Jesus? Primarily through four texts called the Gospels ("good news"): Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are not biographies in the modern sense. They are theological portraits, each presenting Jesus from a different angle:
- Mark — the earliest Gospel, raw and urgent. Jesus is a man of action. - Matthew — Jesus as the new Moses, the authoritative teacher. - Luke — Jesus as the friend of outcasts, women, and the poor. - John — Jesus as the divine Word made flesh, moving through the world with cosmic significance.
What all four agree on: Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God — not a political kingdom but a radical reordering of human relationships in which the last are first, the meek inherit the earth, and love defeats power.
In this lesson, we begin where the tradition begins: with the words and deeds of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels.