BACKGROUND:
Jesus was born into a poor region in a Roman colony.
His mother was a young woman who had gone through an arranged marriage to an old man. She was raped and became pregnant and the locals covered it up with stories of a miracle.

SUPERSTITION:
Herod, a king ruled the region with the authority of the Roman Empire in exchange for a share of taxes and an acceptance of Roman political guidelines. This king knew of the prophesies and heard rumors about the stories which the travelling teachers had spread throughout the region in their recent and short visit. He was very fearful that this infant would grow up to mount a military rebellion against him. He issued a law requiring that all male infants that would be near to the age of Jesus be taken from their parents by the courts and executed in order to preserve the security of the state, and his power.

Following their intuition and responding with secrecy, the infant, Jesus was smuggled into a save house and kept there until everything quieted down after a few years.

Jesus was a bit of a spoiled nerd who from an early age spent too much of his time playing at the local temple instead of doing his chores at home. He studied religion a lot.

Jesus all but disappeared to lead a normal life until he attended a religious ceremony being held by a relative named John. Here, people with an interest in religion and spirituality went through a ritual which was to give them spiritual powers. Sure enough, as soon as he completed the ceremony strange things began to happen. Some of his friends thought he had the devil in him when he returned home but he believed that he had become the Son of God.

As a member of this new cult, Jesus went off to try out some mind twisting herbs in the desert and soon began having hallucinations.

He saw images of the devil which encouraged him to try turning the stones around him into a bakery of loaves. He pulled himself out of the trance long enough to get rid of the vision.

But he still had not eaten for quite awhile and in a fit of delirium, he began to hallucinate again. This time it was a bad trip and he started to experience thoughts of suicide. But again, he was strong and he pulled himself out of it again.

He was still determined to last out the initiation rite so he stayed a few more days. He probably tried some new desert weed out of desperation and once again began having a spaced out trip. This time he felt as if he could rule the world if he wanted to. He gradually came out of that and saw the pointlessness of such motivations.

Jesus was at first a bit of a snob and only was interested in the Jews he had grown up with. Then he got to know many other people through the cult and found out that other races could be just as friendly and good. He started telling all his friends and the people on the street that they would enjoy their life a lot more if they would just lighten up and treat each other better.

Jesus began a formal ministry: giving sermons.
He told everyone that they could be saved from hell and damnation if they worshipped him. He was the Son of God and he would make it all right with his Father, God. More and more people began to believe him, especially after he did some magic and became popular.

He was poor so the many poor people identified with him.
He said rich people were bad and that went over pretty good.
He had this idea that if everybody did their work and shared the result then no one would be homeless or poor.

He had to be careful around the authorities.
They kept trying to put him in jail for trespassing or causing a disturbance. The police would question him and when he was taken before the judge, he had to be careful what he said or they would take it as a confession. He once said, you can't trust anyone but children.

Like a lot of people, Jesus was a real loser.
There were lots of people who would have got into a paramilitary gang around him but he was too passive. He could have likely taken over Jerusalem if he had secretly put together an army in the desert. They could have trained on weekends and holidays and told others they were going camping. But Jesus didn't want anyone to get hurt.

He had a little band of fishermen friends who went about with him. They met to have discussions in a second floor office and plan how they were going to lobby the government.

Jesus lost his cool a couple of times and destroyed some temple property and beat up a government clerk. The church lodged a complaint against him and said he was a dangerous troublemaker who had placed threats against their leadership. They even said he kidnapped one of the administrators and asked for a ransom to help the poor. The Roman police were none too pleased.

His gang didn't quite understand what he was about.
They kept thinking that he would come to his senses and let this spiritual thing go and become a real leader. They could understand that he was God's son as in the avenger against all wrongs. So, at times they were afraid to be seen with him; another time, one got him arrested so he could get enough money to feed the gang. Jesus had always got off before so he expected he would be let go again.

The local judge was none too pleased that the religious authorities, who held the swing vote, wanted Jesus permanently out of the picture. But you know politicians. Caesar said he would string up Jesus if he got their vote and they agreed. So Jesus ended up on the gallows between some really bad dudes and died.

His friends were so grief stricken later that they got hold of some bad weed and said they saw him visit them and then float up into the sky. To heaven, they said.