EXPLAIN THIS: 10 Embarrassing Facts About Jesus You Probably Don’t Know
Jesus Christ is the most famous person who ever lived. Two millennia after He walked in Judea and Galilee, billions of people worship Him as the Son of God. More books have been written about Him than any other person in history. His words are studied in virtually every country on the face of the Earth.
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So how can there be any embarrassing facts about Jesus that you probably don’t know, much less 10? Two reasons: First, skeptics have been circulating misinformation about Jesus for centuries, and second, because millions of people in contemporary secularized America know little or nothing about Jesus.
Now, check out the following 10 embarrassing facts about Jesus, each of which are found in the New Testament. See how many of them you did already know, then ponder the BIG QUESTION these 10 embarrassing facts collectively pose for each of us:
- Jesus’ family thought He was crazy. There it is in the Gospel of Mark at 3:20-21: “Then He went home and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. When His family heard this, they set out to restrain Him because they said ‘He’s out of His mind.'”
- Many of Jesus disciples deserted Him. The Gospel of John (6:65-66) tells us that Jesus claimed “no one comes to me unless it is granted to him by the Father. From that moment, many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him.”
- Jesus’ brothers rejected Him. At John 7:4-5, we learn that His brothers encouraged Him to “show yourself to the world.” John then observes parenthetically that “for not even His brothers believed in Him.”
- Jesus was called a deceiver. People were talking about Jesus early in His three-year ministry on Earth. John 7: 12 explains that “There was a lot of discussion about Him among the crowds. Some were saying ‘he’s a good man.’ Others were saying, ‘no, on the contrary, he’s deceiving people.'”
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Jesus angered Jewish religious leaders so much, they wanted to stone Him. In a lengthy passage beginning at verse 30 of John 8 and continuing through verse 59, Jesus explains that “‘I assure you: Before Abraham was, I AM.’ At that, they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple complex.”
- Jesus was called a “Madman.” At John 10:19-20, we are told that “again a division took place among the Jews because of [His] words. Many of them were saying ‘ he has a demon and he’s crazy, why do you listen to him?'”
- Jesus was called a “glutton” and a “drunkard.” In the 11th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew at verse 19, it is reported that “The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say ‘look, a glutton and a drunkard …'”
- Jesus was called “demon-possessed.” Right after His family said He was out of His mind, Mark tells us at 3:22 that “the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said ‘he has Beelzebul in him’ and ‘he drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.'”
- Jesus’ feet were wiped by a prostitute with her hair. In the Gospel of Luke at 7:37-38, Jesus is eating with a Pharisee when “a woman in the town who was a sinner found out … she brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood behind Him at His feet, weeping, and began to wash His feet with her tears. She wiped His feet with the hair of her head, kissing them and anointing them with the fragrant oil.”
- Jesus was cursed because He was crucified on a tree. In the Old Testament at Deuteronomy 21:23, we learn that “anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.”
So how did you do? Did you know Jesus’ family thought He was nuts, or that people called Him a “madman” and a “drunkard?” How about His own brothers rejected Him during His lifetime on the Earth and He made the Jews so mad they wanted to stone Him for calling Himself God?
Odds are you likely didn’t know any of these 10 embarrassing facts about Jesus unless you grew up in a family of regular church attenders. If you didn’t and you graduated from an Ivy League school or one of the state universities, many, if not all of these 10 facts are likely new to you.
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Okay, so what, you now ask? Here’s what: Embarrassing facts are not what people fabricating a story about Jesus being Resurrected on the third day after His death by crucifixion and burial would have come up with. More likely, they would have embellished His powers, had Him doing miracles all the time, and portrayed someone more like a Marvel Comics hero.
The fact the four Gospels include such embarrassing details is a solid indication that the authors were being honest and factual in their reporting about the life of Jesus. These same four authors all reported that Jesus’ tomb was found empty and that He appeared afterwards to the disciples, singly and together, on multiple occasions, as well as to more than 500 people at one time.
In other words, such evidence points to the Gospels accurately report how Jesus was perceived by those closest to Him, as well as His disciples, the crowds and His enemies, however unflattering the truth might be, and for that reason the Gospels can also be trusted as telling the truth about the Resurrection.
And that changes everything for every person reading this. Jesus said “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life … No man comes to the Father but through me.” What will you do with Him?
All are familiar except there’s a mistake regarding Mary of Magdala. There is no scriptural statement or other evidence that she was a prostitutie. That legend seems to have originated within the early church.
This Scripture doesn’t indicate the prostitute was Mary of Magdala.
A typo? “…She wiped His feet with the hair of His head…”
Should it read, with the hair of her head?
I don’t see this typo. It’s written correctly, unless it was corrected before I read it.
I see a typo:
“She wiped His feet with the hair of His head, kissing them and anointing them with the fragrant oil.”
As you noted, she wiped him with *her* hair.
You have an error in your quote about the prostitute. It jumped out at me when I read ” … She wiped His feet with the hair of *His* head, kissing them and anointing them with the fragrant oil.” The Lord must have had VERY long hair (or been very flexible, I guess).
Jesus would be regarded in exactly the same way if he appeared among us today. Most would think he’s crazy. (Until he started bringing people back from the dead! 🙂 )
What a load of crap. Your interpretations, not the verses which are well know to any Christian who has studied the Word. (e.g, “Jesus was a deceiver” because someone else said so? Nonsense.) You need to find another line of work.
Obviously you haven’t studied it because the Bible never calls itself the “Word.” (It usually refers to itself as “scripture.”) The capitalized use (indicating that it’s a proper name in the English language) of that word is always used in reference to Jesus Christ* in all of the dozen or so popular translations I have checked.
*John 1, 1 John 1, Revelation 19:13 are the ONLY places the word “word” is is ever capitalized in the Bible. Check ’em out.
The sower sows the WORD. Mark 4, Luke 8, Matthew 13. This is Jesus speaking here! Study it out. The word of God is like a seed. You are a result of a seed! Give the Word of God first place in your life.
The first fact that is listed about his own “family thought he was crazy” is wrong. This is where you get in trouble using other Bible versions than the King James version. Mark 3:20. “And when his FRIENDS heard of it they went out to lay hold of him: for they said, He is beside himself.” (KJV) His friends thought he was crazy for a while. His family knew exactly who he was. Mary and Joseph were worried about him I’m sure but they never thought he was crazy! Satan has used the different Bible versions to misleading people for many years. I would suggest reading, Gail Ripplinger’s book. NEW AGE BIBLE VERSIONS. This will help you understand why the King James Bible has been re-written and other versions created from it. Please read it. This will definitely enlighten you and help you understand scripture better. When I say, “you” I mean people in general. Nothing personal. God bless you all!
You seem to be angry for no reason. The author did not say Jesus was a deceiver, he quoted it correctly saying people said He was a deceiver.
“portrayed someone more like a Marvel Comics hero.”
While this doesn’t particularly diminish you point, it does show a lack of knowledge about Marvel Comics heroes. Many of the most prominent Marvel heroes are deeply flawed. In particular one of the most famous Iron Man storylines deals with his alcoholism.
Knew all of them. One point of contention, these aren’t facts about Jesus, but about those people around him.
Given that the protagonist ends up tortured and executed with a pair of thieves, why would I expect a comic book superhero?
Well played. The title caught my eye and I had to see for myself where this article was headed. Nice. Peace and good will to you!
The last line tries to quote John 14:6. It should read, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”
The Pharisees called Him illegitimate. John 8:19
His cursing of the fig tree I’ve always found a bit disconcerting. There are interpretations that try to spin it as warning against presenting more to the world than you actually have to offer, but the reaction is so amusingly human I’ve always found it one of the more convincing arguments for Jesus’s historicity. Somebody writing a panegyric would not be likely to include that story.