The long-awaited hour had come. For thirty years, the Son of God had lived quietly in Nazareth, a carpenter among carpenters. But the time of preparation was over. Down at the Jordan River, a rugged prophet named John was calling all of Israel to repentance — baptizing those who turned their hearts back to God. Then one day, Jesus walked down to the water's edge. John recognized him immediately and trembled. 'I have need to be baptized of thee,' John said, 'and comest thou to me?' But Jesus insisted. As he rose from the water, heaven itself split open. The Spirit of God descended like a dove and rested upon him. And a voice thundered from above: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' The ministry had begun.

The Spirit immediately drove Jesus into the wilderness. For forty days and forty nights he fasted alone among the rocks and wild beasts — no food, no shelter, no companionship. Then, when he was at his weakest in body, the devil came to him. Three times the enemy tried: Command these stones to become bread. Throw yourself from the temple roof. Bow to me and receive all the kingdoms of the world. Three times Jesus answered with the Word of God alone: 'It is written.' The tempter departed. Angels came and ministered to him. He had proven that no temptation — not appetite, not pride, not power — could turn the Son of God from the Father's will.

Walking along the shores of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers — Simon called Peter, and Andrew — casting their nets into the sea. They were fishermen, weathered and strong, men of the water and the wind. Jesus called out to them in the morning light: 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Without a word of argument, without asking where they were going or what it would cost them, they left their nets and followed him. Further along the shore, he found James and John mending nets in their father's boat. He called them too. They left the boat, left their father, and followed. That is how a kingdom begins — not with armies or armies, but with ordinary men who simply say yes.

There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and Mary the mother of Jesus was there. When the wine ran out — a disaster at any feast — Mary came quietly to her son. She told him simply: 'They have no wine.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.' But Mary turned to the servants and said: 'Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.' There were six stone water-pots standing nearby, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill them with water. They filled them to the brim. 'Now draw some out and take it to the governor of the feast.' The man tasted it and called the bridegroom aside — 'You have kept the best wine for last.' This was the first miracle. His disciples believed on him.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews — a man of position, learning, and reputation. He dared not come to Jesus by day, fearing what his colleagues would say. So he came by night, slipping through the dark streets of Jerusalem to find the Teacher from Galilee. 'Rabbi,' he began carefully, 'we know that thou art a teacher come from God.' Jesus cut straight to the heart: 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus stumbled over the words. How can a man be born when he is old? Jesus opened a door wider than Nicodemus had imagined: 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.' A ruler of Israel left that rooftop a changed man.

It was noon — the hottest hour — when Jesus sat down beside Jacob's Well in Samaria. His disciples had gone to buy food. A woman came alone to draw water. Jews had no dealings with Samaritans, but Jesus spoke to her: 'Give me to drink.' She was startled. He offered her living water — water that would become a spring within her, welling up to eternal life. She asked for it. Then Jesus revealed that he knew everything about her life — five husbands, and the man she lived with now. She left her water pot and ran back to her city, crying: 'Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did — is not this the Christ?' Many believed because of her word.

Simon Peter had fished all night and caught nothing. He was washing his nets in the early morning when Jesus stepped into his boat and asked him to push out a little from shore. Jesus taught the crowd from the boat. When he finished, he turned to Peter: 'Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.' Peter knew the sea. He knew that fish ran at night, not midday. He knew they had worked all night for nothing. But he obeyed. The net enclosed such a great multitude of fish that it began to break. He called his partners in the other boat to help, and both boats began to sink with the weight. Peter fell down at Jesus' knees: 'Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' Jesus said: 'Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.'

In the ancient world, a leper had no life. He was required by law to cry 'Unclean! Unclean!' wherever he walked, to warn others away. He could not enter a city, touch a person, or worship in the temple. He lived in a walking tomb. One such man came to Jesus on a dusty road outside a village. He knelt in the dirt and spoke words of perfect humility and faith: 'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.' There was no demand in his prayer, no assumption. Only faith. Jesus could have healed him with a word from a distance. But instead, he reached out and touched him — the first human touch that man may have felt in years. 'I will; be thou clean.' Immediately the leprosy vanished. The man stood restored — whole in body, and in soul.

The house was so packed that no one could get near the door. Word had spread that Jesus was inside teaching, and the whole town had pressed in around him. Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed friend on a mat. They could not get through. So they climbed to the rooftop, broke through the clay and thatch, and lowered their friend down through the ceiling on ropes — right into the middle of the room, right in front of Jesus. Jesus looked up at the hole in the roof. He saw their faith — not just the paralyzed man's faith, but the faith of four friends willing to destroy a roof for their friend. 'Son,' he said to the man, 'thy sins be forgiven thee.' Then, to prove his authority: 'Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way.' The man walked out, carrying his mat, and everyone glorified God.

Tax collectors were despised in Israel. They worked for Rome, overcharging their own countrymen and pocketing the difference. No decent person would sit at table with them. Matthew — also called Levi — sat at his toll booth in Capernaum, counting coins with Roman soldiers standing behind him, when Jesus walked by. Jesus looked directly at him and said simply: 'Follow me.' Matthew got up. He left the money on the table, left the tax records, left the comfortable income and the despised security of his post — and followed. That same evening he threw a great banquet for Jesus at his house, inviting all his tax-collector friends. The Pharisees muttered to the disciples: 'Why does your master eat with publicans and sinners?' Jesus heard them. 'They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'

In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there was a pool called Bethesda, surrounded by five covered porches. In these porches lay a great multitude of sick people — blind, lame, paralyzed — all waiting for the moving of the water. The belief was that when the pool stirred, the first one in would be healed. One man had been there for thirty-eight years. Jesus found him and asked a question that cut to the heart: 'Wilt thou be made whole?' The man gave the saddest of answers: 'I have no man to help me into the pool.' He had been waiting thirty-eight years for someone to carry him. Jesus did not carry him into the pool. He spoke the word: 'Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.' And the man who had not walked in nearly four decades rose, picked up his mat, and walked.

Before he chose them, Jesus went up into a mountain and prayed all night to God. At daybreak he called his disciples to him and from among them chose twelve — men he named apostles, 'sent ones.' Simon, whom he called Peter. Andrew his brother. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, whom he called Boanerges — Sons of Thunder. Philip and Bartholomew. Matthew the tax collector. Thomas. James the son of Alphaeus. Thaddaeus. Simon the Zealot. And Judas Iscariot, who would betray him. Twelve men. Imperfect, ordinary, unlearned men — fishermen, a tax collector, a political revolutionary. Jesus would pour three years of his life into them, knowing exactly what each one was. He chose them not for who they were, but for who he would make them.

When Jesus saw the multitudes following him up the hillside, he sat down. His disciples gathered close. And he opened his mouth and taught — delivering the most extraordinary sermon the world has ever heard. He began with the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. He told them they were the salt of the earth, the light of the world. He raised the bar on every commandment — not just murder, but anger; not just adultery, but lust. Love your enemies. Pray in secret. Lay up treasure in heaven. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. When he was finished, the people were astonished — for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

A Roman centurion — a commander of a hundred soldiers — came to Jesus on behalf of his servant who lay at home, paralyzed and in terrible suffering. This Gentile soldier, who held authority over men who could break others on a word, came to Jesus with extraordinary humility. He said: 'Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.' He understood something that many of Jesus' own people had missed — that authority works by command. 'I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh.' Jesus turned to those following him and marveled. 'I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.' He spoke the word. At that same hour the servant was healed.

Evening had come. Jesus said to his disciples: 'Let us pass over unto the other side.' They left the crowd and set sail across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was exhausted from teaching all day. He lay down in the stern on a cushion and slept. Then a great storm arose — sudden and violent, the kind the Sea of Galilee was known for. Waves broke over the boat and it began to fill. The disciples, some of them seasoned fishermen who knew this sea, were terrified. They woke him: 'Master, carest thou not that we perish?' Jesus arose. He rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea: 'Peace, be still.' The wind stopped. There was a perfect, immediate calm. He turned to them: 'Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?' They looked at one another in great awe: 'What manner of man is this?'

Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue — a respected man who fell at Jesus' feet in front of the whole crowd, begging him to come to his house. His only daughter, twelve years old, was dying. Jesus went with him. The crowd pressed on every side. As they walked, word came from the house: 'Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.' Jesus heard it and said to Jairus: 'Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.' At the house, the mourners were already weeping and wailing loudly. Jesus said: 'Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.' They laughed at him. He put them all outside. Taking the father, the mother, and his three disciples, he went in. He took the child by the hand and said gently: 'Talitha cumi — Little girl, I say unto you, arise.' Her spirit returned. She stood up and walked. Her parents were overcome with astonishment.

John the Baptist had been imprisoned by King Herod because he had publicly rebuked the king for marrying his own brother's wife, Herodias. Herod feared John — he knew him to be a just and holy man — and kept him safe in prison while also being baffled by his words. But Herodias nursed her hatred, waiting for her moment. It came on Herod's birthday. He threw a great banquet for his lords and captains. The daughter of Herodias danced before them all, and Herod was so pleased that he made a rash oath before his guests: 'Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee — up to the half of my kingdom.' The girl went to her mother. Her mother said: 'The head of John the Baptist.' Herod was grieved. But for the sake of his oath and his guests, he sent the executioner. John's disciples came and took his body and buried it — and went and told Jesus.

The crowd had followed Jesus out into a deserted place and he had healed their sick and taught them all day. As evening came, the disciples urged him: 'Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals.' Jesus said: 'They need not depart; give ye them to eat.' The disciples had only five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the grass in groups. He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute. They distributed. Five thousand men — plus women and children — all ate. All were filled. When it was over, they gathered up twelve baskets of leftovers. The people who saw it said: 'This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.' But Jesus, knowing they meant to take him by force and make him king, withdrew alone to the mountain to pray.

Jesus had sent the disciples ahead across the sea by boat while he went up the mountain alone to pray. By the fourth watch of the night — between three and six in the morning — the boat was in the middle of the sea, battered by waves with the wind against them. Then they saw a figure walking on the water toward them and cried out in fear. 'Be of good cheer,' Jesus called through the storm, 'it is I; be not afraid.' Peter shouted back: 'Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.' Jesus said: 'Come.' Peter climbed out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind and the boisterous waves, he was afraid, and he began to sink. 'Lord, save me!' Jesus caught him immediately: 'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?' When they climbed into the boat, the wind ceased. Those in the boat worshipped him: 'Of a truth thou art the Son of God.'

Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi — the far northern edge of the land — and asked his disciples a question: 'Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?' They gave various answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Then Jesus turned the question directly on them: 'But whom say ye that I am?' Silence. Then Simon Peter stepped forward and spoke with the certainty of one who had seen enough to know: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus told him that flesh and blood had not revealed this to him — it was the Father in heaven who had opened his eyes. He gave Simon a new name: Peter — the Rock. On this rock of revealed faith he would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. That day the secret was fully out, at least among the twelve.

Six days after Peter's great confession, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain apart. There, before their eyes, he was transfigured. His face shone like the sun. His garments became as white as light — a whiteness no bleaching on earth could achieve. And there appeared beside him Moses and Elijah, speaking with him of the things to come in Jerusalem. Peter, overwhelmed, blurted out: 'Lord, it is good for us to be here — let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' Even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them all. A voice came out of the cloud: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.' The disciples fell on their faces in terror. Jesus touched them: 'Arise, and be not afraid.' When they lifted their eyes, they saw no man but Jesus only.