Jesus: Most Famous Story Ever Told

December 23, 2025 • Tristan Palumbo

Hello, hello, and happy holidays! Merry Christmas!

On this channel we speak about fascinating stories in simple English, and today is one of the most famous stories of all, the full life and death of Jesus in B1 English.

I tell you this story as history, not a religious story, but more historical.

What happened? Who was he? A carpenter? A teacher? A healer? A criminal?

It depends who you ask. He never wrote a book, he never led an army, he never controlled a country, he never even travelled more than a few hundred kilometres from where he was born. He frightened, terrified the people in power with no weapon, just ideas.

My information comes from historians and the Bible, but if I say anything wrong or incorrect, then my apologies.

So the story starts in Judea two thousand years ago. Judea is a modern-day Palestine, Israel. Back then the Romans controlled everything, the roads, the taxes, the law, but everyone was allowed to have their own religion, and everyone was allowed to worship and pray however they like. That was their only freedom. Rome ran the country and owned it.

For many centuries, for many hundreds of years, the local people, the Jewish Israeli people back then, whatever you want to label them as, they had always waited for a Messiah, like a king, a king chosen by God, someone who would finally free them, because all this time they had been ruled. They were in Egypt, they were like a slave people, they were ruled in Babylon, and now they were ruled by Rome. Who's going to free us? They're waiting for that guy.

So in this time and place, many people said they were the Messiah. Messiah means the King, the spiritual King, the one who will free us, the Messiah. Many people said it, perfect time and place to say it. I'm sure there'd be lots of cult leaders back then, but nearly always they were killed, because it created trouble. It's just easier for Rome to just kill them off. In this time and place, a baby was born in Bethlehem.

His mother was Mary, and his father was a Joseph, a carpenter, and a Christian would believe that his father is God historically. Well, I mean, who knows for sure? We're talking more historically. There's a historical story, so then everyone can enjoy it, whether you're a Buddhist or a Muslim, everyone's welcome to enjoy the story.

They were traveling. Mary was pregnant, so pregnant. She had a baby inside her, and they were traveling to Nazareth, a nearby bigger town. But the town was crowded. Every room was full, every hotel reserved, and she was giving birth. She was in labor. So they took her to a stable. A stable is where horses and cows and animals live. So she gave birth there on a bed of straw in a stable.

But the legend goes, many people came. Many nearby shepherds came to see him. They say that angels or maybe spirits appeared in the sky and pointed the way. And three wise men from the east educated and rich men from far and wide, bringing gifts. And they've said that they followed the stars to see the new king of the Jews.

But the word reached the real king. To this guy was called Herod. King Herod was a paranoid, paranoid meaning he thought everyone was trying to attack him and kill him and take his position all the time. He was a paranoid and violent ruler, and he trusted nobody. He was like, "A new king? A new king on my territory?"

So he called some of the people who had visited Jesus in the stable. He says, "Tell me where this child is. Tell me where he is. I want to worship him too." Of course, he was lying because he wanted the child to be dead because he was jealous that the child would become king instead of him.

Nobody told him where baby Jesus was, so he made this crazy decision because back then everyone was absolutely insane, like 2,000 years ago. The orders were, "Kill every boy under two years old." So he sent soldiers to that region to kill every boy. There was less than two. A real madman. But luckily, Joseph had been warned in a dream. In the middle of the night, he woke up Mary and they wrapped up the baby in cloth. They got on their donkey and they traveled south. They went to Egypt right before the soldiers arrived.

And Egypt is where they lived for a few years until the crazy King Herod died. And then they finally returned home to Nazareth to a very small village, Galilee. Jesus grew up as a carpenter. A carpenter is someone who works with wood, furniture, floors, carves wood. He learned that with his dad, just like any other village boy.

But when he was about 12, they started to really notice his advanced understanding, advanced level of knowledge of understanding how the world functions. He used to just hang out at temples for hours and hours and hours talking to local priests there. Yeah, people were quite impressed.

Apparently he said this at one point. Here Mary, Mary, his mother went to get him and he said, "Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house?" That's quite a mysterious thing to say for a 12-year-old boy and they probably didn't know what he meant at the time.

Nothing really happened until for about 18 years. Nobody knows where he went or what he did. Some people say, I mean, there's all kinds of theories out there. One theory that he went to India, if you heard that, he went far east and studied philosophies. He could have gone anywhere. He knows when he was about 30, that's when he reappears in history. There is this mad prophet, "prophet" meaning like a man of God, like a spokesperson, a person who speaks for God, a prophet. There was a mad prophet called John and he lived in the wild woods near a river.

He wore rough clothes made of camel hair and he ate insects and drank wild honey. He was all like, "Everybody turn away from your sins and change now. Judgment is coming. Change now." He didn't like the religious leaders, but he had many followers. It was very popular. He started to say, "Someone greater is coming. Someone greater is coming."

One day, Jesus appeared at John's gathering and John put his head in the water, which is to baptize. When you put someone's head in the water and you take them out again, they are born again and their sins are cleaned for a new life. They baptized him.

The Christian legend is, "The skies opened up and a big voice from above said, "This is my son. I am pleased with him." Or everyone could have been on magic mushrooms. Nobody knows. It's 2,000 years ago. Anyway, he made an amazing impression and everyone was amazed.

He walked out the river and he went into the desert for 40 days. When Jesus went into the desert, he encountered the devil, Satan. 6-6-6.

After this time of being alone in the desert without eating and being tested by the devil, when he came back, he was then Jesus, the teacher, the more enlightened being.

Over the next three years, he traveled around the local area teaching and preaching. Preaching means to teach in a religious way. He gained hundreds and thousands of followers, real followers, real people, not your Instagram likes.

He had 12 very close followers called his disciples. Every day, men, one was a fisherman, one was a tax collector, ordinary working guys.

What Jesus taught in summary, I'll try to summarize it as far as I understand, he taught that God was something close and loving, less a distant judge and punisher, but more a loving father who can understand and forgive. As long as you believe, you will never walk alone in life. So I can see how that is very appealing and comforting for people because nobody wants to feel that they're doing it alone.

This time he healed the sick and the blind, helped the paralyzed people walk. Paralyzed is when you cannot use your legs, your legs are like dead. The paralyzed, they walked again. And Christians believe that he did miracles. A miracle means something amazing that is unscientific. He fed 5,000 people from a few pieces of bread and he walked on water.

The word spread through all the villages, the crowds grew larger. Even though he tried to avoid attention and after healing, he'd say, "Tell no one." But still, thousands of people came, all the classic stuff. People brought their children to him to be blessed. Everyone was touching his clothes, hoping for miracles. You still see this kind of behavior in some parts of India, actually, when I went there. People desperately touching the guru, hoping for miracles.

This was rocking boats, meaning he was making an impression, changing the natural order. Many people believed he was a prophet from God. Others thought he was dangerous or evil. Maybe he was a time traveler or a magician and not everyone was happy. The local religious leaders closely watched him because he was breaking old Jewish rules, such as he healed people on the Sabbath day, he ate with sinners, he forgave people's sins as something only God can forgive sins. But he was doing it. How dare he? Who does he think he is? They said. And the Romans, the Romans also watched because any man who attracted a crowd was a problem. Any man who people called king was possibly a threat.

Jesus knew the danger was growing and he even warned his disciples. He said he'll be arrested and that he would suffer and that he would die. Of course, they couldn't believe it.

He rode a donkey into Jerusalem, which is the biggest city in that area, and the streets were packed. People were throwing flowers, waving, going crazy, shouting again and again, "King! King! King!" And the Roman soldiers watched from the walls, counting the crowd, a bit nervous, a bit like, "What's happening here?" Sending messages to the governor. There's some guy in Jerusalem and it's a huge crowd and everyone's calling him a king.

Jesus just continued on the donkey, just going forward. Well, he went to the main temple. The main temple was merchants selling animals and money changing, people shouting for lower prices, like a big busy market, profitable. He'd been this way for many years and then Jesus went to the middle of that and then he knocked over the tables and the coins crashed on the floor. Birds flew free from the cages. Everyone was like, "What's this?" And he pushed the merchants to the exits. He said, "This is a house of prayer. For this is a house of God. You've made it into a place for thieves, a place for criminals."

That obviously got the attention of hundreds of people. No one really stopped him, but the priests, the local priests, they were watching and they saw everything. They made a decision. They decided that they had to arrest this man because he's causing too many problems. They needed Rome to stay pleased. They needed the area, the town, to be a place of peace. In their opinion, they did not want to break the peace. Everything that can be said on their side of the argument.

How would they stop him? One of Jesus' followers came to them in secret. Judas. You've probably heard that name before. For 30 silver coins, he offered them. He said, "Okay, I'll take you to Jesus for 30 silver coins." And then at night, he took the soldiers to Jesus where he was.

That night was the Last Supper. So Jesus, he had dinner with his 12 closest followers, of which there's that very famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the Last Supper. And that's where he says his famous speech, like, "This bread is my body. This wine is my blood." But he also said, "One of you will betray me tonight." Meaning one of you will turn your back on me tonight. And of course, everyone looked shocked. Like, "Not me, my Lord! No, not me! Surely not me!"

Jesus dipped bread into a bowl, and he gave it to Judas. "Do it quickly," Jesus said. And that's when Judas stood up, and he walked out into the darkness to the authorities, the local priests.

So Jesus went to pray at a local garden just outside the city with his disciples. And then the sound of soldiers, they could see lights through the trees, the sound of boots on the dirt, swords with Judas walking in front. And Judas kissed Jesus on the cheek. He kissed him on the cheek.

And Jesus's followers, they tried to protect him, and there was a small, quick fight, and a follower cut off the ear of one of the group arresting him. And Jesus said, "Stop! Put your swords away!" And apparently, he healed the man's ear, and then he let them take him away. As if he knew that he had to die, perhaps so his message to the world would be complete, remembered, and powerful.

So they took Jesus away, and the trial, meaning the trial is when a person goes in front of all the judges, the judges and all the people that judge and decide what will happen and what the punishment is. So they asked him questions. They wanted him to say, "I am the Messiah. I am the King." They had already killed lots of people for saying that that was a crime.

So they asked him, "Are you the Messiah?" "Are you the Messiah?" They asked. And Jesus looked at him and said, "You say that I am, and that is the best they could do. That was enough! Blasphemy! Blasphemy is like, "How dare you!" So they could not execute anyone, but Rome, only Rome had the power to execute someone.

So they dragged Jesus. They took him to the governor's palace, a man Pontius Pilate. Some people say Pilate, but it's Latin, it's probably Pilate. And he was just like, didn't care. He hated Jerusalem, hated the local festivities. He was kind of, didn't really care.

"Are you the King of the Jews?" He asked. And Jesus said nothing. He saw no rebel. He saw no army. He saw no threat. He saw just like a beaten up man from the countryside.

For the crowd outside grew and grew. Sorry, grew and grew. I can't even speak English sometimes. And the priests were shouting. And of course Pilate, his job is just to keep the peace. Keep the peace, do your job, and then you can go back to Rome, to your wife and kids. So he washed his hands in a bowl of water. He was like, "Whatever. Make him, crucify him." Crucify means put on a cross, which was a common way to execute somebody back then. Put him on a cross. He can be a warning, whatever.

So Friday afternoon, it happened. Jesus carried his own cross through the streets of Jerusalem. The same streets that he had arrived on, on the donkey. And everyone was shouting, "King! King!" Now the same crowds were maybe silent. Silent or maybe laughing.

So the poor boy was whipped with different kinds of whips. He was probably naked, so had no clothes on for maximum humiliation. Because crucifixion was supposed to be a humiliating method. And they put a crown of thorns on his head. So his head was bleeding, and he walked with his cross outside the city and up a hill.

The soldiers nailed him, nailed him, hammer and nails to the wood. They put one nail through his two feet, and one nail through each hand, nailed to the cross. And they raised to the cross. And I'm sure it was very dramatic.

And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." So he said his message to his last words. Forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. So they put him up there, and then he was hanging there on the cross. And they put a sign above his head that said, "King of the Jews." And this was kind of like a joke, actually. Like a warning. Rome's final word on these Messiah people.

And he died by three o'clock, apparently. So it took a few hours. And life went on. Priests returned to the temple, soldiers returned to their posts, and the governor returned to his dinner.

They took him off the cross, and they put him in a tomb, an empty room, and they rolled a stone, a big stone, across the entrance. People were, of course, very sad, and his followers hid in the shadows, behind locked doors. The man they had followed for three years, their Messiah, was now gone. The story, it seemed, was over. But if the story ended there, he probably would not know his name today. So the legend goes.

Three days later, his followers began claiming something impossible happened. The tomb was now empty. And they had seen him alive. He had spoken to them, eaten with them, and walked with them. Some people believed them, and many did not. And that argument continues to this day.

And what happened to his followers, to his disciples? Well, they went out into the world, spreading the lessons they had learned. It was illegal for about 250 years to call yourself a Christian.

They spread the teachings orally at first. Orally means by word, but eventually the teachings were captured in about 20 books, about 15 to 20 books. But only four of those books make the modern-day Bible. The Church only accepts four of them. The other 15, such as the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Mary, they're not in the Bible. And some of them an even more interesting read. I quite enjoy the Gospel of Thomas, lots of good quotes in there. And many of the other books are like half missing or half destroyed.

And what happened to the disciples? We think, but we do not know for certain. Three of them were also crucified, put on a cross, crucified. Peter, Andrew, and Philip. And another three about were also executed. And the other ones, we don't really know.

But here is what we know, that he lived for about 33 years, that he never wrote a book, never led a country, never led an army, never had a political office. Yet more people have written about him, more songs written for him, more paintings done about him than any person in known human civilization.

Today, the empire that killed him is gone. All of its emperors are pretty much forgotten, and its armies are dust. But this carpenter, his words are still spoken every single day in every country in the world 2,000 years later.

So empires can kill people, but they cannot kill their ideas.

Though I wish you love, I wish you peace, and a beautiful, wonderful winter season.