Jesus Christ

Baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. According to the Gospels, the heavens open and a voice speaks. He retreats into the Judean wilderness for forty days. When he returns, he begins his public ministry. He is about 30.

Calls his first disciples at the Sea of Galilee. Simon and Andrew are casting fishing nets. James and John are mending theirs. He tells them to follow him. They leave their boats. Over the next months, he appoints twelve apostles. Most are fishermen, tax collectors, and laborers. None are priests or scholars.

Delivers the Sermon on the Mount to a crowd gathered on a hillside near Capernaum. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The sermon covers prayer, forgiveness, wealth, worry, and judgment. It contains the Lord's Prayer and the Golden Rule. It occupies three chapters of Matthew's Gospel.

Feeds five thousand people from five loaves of bread and two fish near the Sea of Galilee. The only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. The disciples collect twelve baskets of leftovers.

Enters Jerusalem riding a donkey during Passover week. Crowds spread palm branches and cloaks in his path. He overturns the tables of the money changers in the Temple. The chief priests and elders begin plotting his arrest. Judas Iscariot agrees to identify him for thirty pieces of silver.

Crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect. He is between 33 and 36 years old. Two criminals hang beside him. According to the Gospels, he says seven final phrases from the cross, including "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" and "It is finished." A Roman soldier named Longinus pierces his side with a spear. Joseph of Arimathea claims the body and places it in a rock-cut tomb. A stone is rolled across the entrance.

The Gospels report that three days after the crucifixion, women visiting the tomb find it empty. Over the following weeks, Jesus appears to his followers multiple times. The belief in his resurrection becomes the foundation of Christianity. Within decades, communities of his followers spread across the Roman Empire.

Washes his disciples' feet at the Last Supper. Peter objects. Jesus insists. A teacher kneeling before students. The act becomes the model for servant leadership for two thousand years.

The Council of Nicaea. Emperor Constantine convenes over 300 bishops to settle disputes about Christ's nature. They produce the Nicene Creed, which affirms that Jesus is "of one substance with the Father." Three centuries after his death, a carpenter's son from Galilee has become the theological center of the Roman Empire's official religion.

The earliest known reference to December 25 as the date of Christ's birth appears in the Chronography of 354 AD, a Roman almanac. The actual birth date is unknown. December 25 may have been chosen to coincide with existing Roman winter solstice festivals.