One solitary life: An anonymous essay

Here is a man who was born of Jewish parents in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30, and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. 

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family of his own. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of his divine manhood. 

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was dying – and that was his coat. 

When he was dead he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. 

Three days later he conquered death and rose from the grave. He then appeared to many of his followers; ate with them; spoke with them; and commissioned them to go into the world and tell everyone about his life, his death and his resurrection, his ascension and that he would come again one day and take all who love him to spend eternity with him. 

Twenty wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the colomn of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armed forces that ever served on land, sea and in the air, and all the parliaments and congresses that ever governed and all the kings who every reigned, and all the presidents who ever served put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that ONE SOLITARY LIFE. 

-Anonymous

Writer’s note: This anonymous essay has been edited and revised in 2002 and in 2015.