Jesus Christ is often regarded as one of the most divisive characters in human history. The fact that Jesus was born into a human body is one of the most challenging aspects of understanding Jesus. Isn’t it hard to conceive Jesus as a human, just like us? We are confident in saying that He did not go through the stages of childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood that make up the process of maturing into an adult. We are confident that He did not experience the same levels of rage, worry, or any other form of pain that we do today. In point of fact, however, He went through all that we do.
There are so many things about Jesus that it’s possible that we will never know, but here are ten amazing facts about Jesus that might surprise you!
10 Fascinating Aspects of the Life of Jesus
Jesus did not grow up without any siblings. In reality, he had other siblings. After the miraculous birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph went on to have other children. It is difficult to picture what it would have been like to be one of Jesus’ younger brothers or sisters, but they did have other children.
During a trip that Jesus had with his family when he was 12 years old, he vanished without a trace. Jesus and His family had made the journey to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Passover. After the festival was over, Jesus was the only member of his family to remain in Jerusalem. The rest of his family packed up and departed Jerusalem after Jesus. And it took his family an entire day to notice that he had vanished before they started looking for him. They spent several days looking for Him before discovering that he was teaching in the temple. It may have been a little unsettling to think that God might have misplaced his son.
Jesus became enraged. Even the tables in the temple were turned over by him. He did not have any tolerance for persons who took advantage of others when they were in the house of His Father. It may come as a surprise that Jesus displayed his anger, but it is reassuring to know that He, like you and I, gets irritated over topics such as injustice.
Jesus had more problems with the leaders of the church than he did with the average community member. During the time that Jesus was on earth, He showed grace and love to everyone, including those who were considered to be “sinners.” In addition to this, He was not afraid to criticize the religious authorities of His day. He did not approve of the way in which they dealt with the people he cared about. It teaches us that it is important to lead others well because He cares more about how we treat others than how well we keep a set of rules, regardless of how many followers we have or how much power and influence we have. This is because He cares more about how we treat others than how well we keep a set of rules.
Jesus was not of white ethnicity. Jesus was truly of Jewish heritage and would have been a man with dark skin and shaggy dark hair. Despite the fact that many artworks in our museums depict Jesus as a tall, white, Scandinavian gentleman with a beard, this is not an accurate depiction of who Jesus actually was. As a result, his outward appearance was very dissimilar to the common conception of what he should have looked like.
Jesus Christ came from simple beginnings. Jesus originated from a humble background; his family worked as day laborers. He was born into a family of carpenters. This indicates that Jesus would have been familiar with what it was like to live a life of destitution, to be hungry, and to be in need. Jesus Christ, despite the fact that he is the Son of God, chose to come to earth in the form of a common man, just like you and I.
Jesus didn’t begin His public ministry until much later in life, sometime around the age of 30. Some of us would have expected that He would have immediately begun his ministry after being born, but in reality, He went through the typical stages of childhood development of an infant, a young child, a teenager, and a young adult.
Jesus’ ministry relied on the financial support of women. Jesus had an extraordinary reverence for women and even intervened to save the life of a lady who was about to be executed by stoning. Not only did Jesus model for us the proper way to relate to women, but they also contributed financially to his work. In Luke 8, he discusses the women who accompanied Jesus and His disciples and provided financial assistance for them out of their own resources.
When Jesus was confronted with his own mortality, he struggled. We are all aware that Jesus came to earth in order to pay the price for our sins, but often we forget that He was just a man who faced challenges like you and I do. When Jesus realized that he was about to die in the Garden of Gethsemane, he became distressed and prayed to God, asking that he be spared the anguish that was about to befall him.
Jesus’ mission on Earth extended beyond simply atoning for our sins by dying on the cross. He chose to take on human form in order to fully understand the struggles that we face and to be able to empathize with us. He went through the same things that we do, including suffering from heartbreak, rejection, deception, loss, illness, and death. Because God intended His Son, Jesus, to endure all the agony that this world has to offer, when we pray, we are praying not just to the God who created the world but to the God who knows our suffering from personal experience.
We pray to the God who actually hears our prayers, who can see into our hearts, and who can sense the sorrow that we are experiencing.
It is astonishing and exciting to think that the One who came to redeem us actually did walk completely in our shoes before coming to save us. He is familiar with our thoughts and our anguish. Even if they appear to be different, He is nevertheless able to comprehend us. Not only is this reassuring, but it also inspires us with the confidence that if Jesus could go through life while still being totally dependent on and believing in God, then so can we.
