Jesus Christ.

No one is more loved and hated than Jesus Christ. The name Jesus is derived from the old testament name Joshau which means, quote Yahwh God is salvation.”  The title Christ means one chosen and anointed by God to be the Messiah to deliver God’s people.

Roughly 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born in a dumpy rural hick town, not unlike those today where guys change their own oil, think prowrestling is real, find women who chew tobacco sexy, and eat a lot of hot pockets with their uncle-daddy.    Jesus’ mom was a poor, unwed teenage girl who was mocked for claiming she conceived via the Holy Spirit.  Most people thought she concocted a crazy story to cover the fact she was knocking boots with some guy in the back seat of a car at the prom.  Jesus was adopted by a simple carpenter named Joseph and spent the first 35 years of his life in obscurity, swinging a hammer with his dad.

Around the age of 30, Jesus began a public ministry that included preaching, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and befriending social misfits such as perverts, drunks, and theives. Jesus’ ministry spanned only three short years before he was put to death for declaring Himself to be God.  He died by a shameful crucifixion like 10’s of thousands of people before and after Him.

At first glance, Jesus’ resume is rather simple.  He never traveled more than a few hundred miles from His home.  He never held a political office, never wrote a book, never married, never had sex, never attended college, never visited a big city, and never won a poker tournament.  He died both homeless and poor.

Nonetheless, Jesus is the most famous person in all of human history.  More songs have been song to Him, artwork created of Him, and books written about Him than anyone who has ever lived.  In fact, Jesus looms so large over human history that we actually measure time by him; our calendar is divided into the years before and after his birth.  Noted as BC and (“before Christ”) and AD (ano domini, meaning”in the year of the Lord”), respectively.

No army, nation, or person has changed human history to the degree that Jesus, the homeless man, has.  Some 2,000 years after He walked the earth, Jesus remains as hot as ever.  In fact, as Paul promised in 2 Corinthians 11:3,4, the opinions about Jesus are countless in seemingly every area of culture.  Vintage Jesus (Mark Driskoll)