Happy Birthday, Dude!

We all have heroes.

Mine are beyond counting, and include members of my family living and dead, people I learned about in school, thinkers, authors, philosophers, sages of ages past and visionaries who foresaw the future.

And chief among them is Jesus of Nazareth, a guy born over two thousand years ago, who to this day shapes the attitudes and actions of hunderds of millions of people world wide.

That’s pretty cool.

So, what exactly did Jesus of Nazareth do to earn the status of Uber-Hero?

Plenty, as I see it.  He spoke Truth to Power.  He defended the poor, the voiceless, the ill-treated sinners who were doing their insufficient best.  He represented you and me in a way which hadn’t been seen before, and has seldom been replicated.

And he reinterpreted God for the people of his day, reading the tales of a vengeful, wrath-filled deity and birthing a vision of love and forgiveness, humility and mutual respect.

I’m inclined to see it like that, to embrace His interpretation of the world we all share, and to wish for and work toward a future where love rules, and forgiveness triumphs over vengeance.

Thanks, Jesus of Nazareth, for showing us how it’s done, even in the face of State-sponsored censorship, even at the cost of your own Earthly life.  You walked that walk, and you set the bar plenty high.

And while historians might quibble about your actual birth date, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’d be well served in celebrating your birth and life, and today is as good a day as any to remember your teachings.

Happy Birthday, Jesus.