My Take

I have two possibilities that seem acceptable to me regarding the Jesus story. As always, we must start with the premise he did exist and bear in mind that maybe he did not.

First:

He was a man who knew we survived physical. That we are spiritual beings first and foremost. He was a highly developed medium. He preached this, that we are all children of god, that God dwells within each of us, that we are eternal beings. he went to his physical death knowing he would survive it and that he would appear once again to his followers to prove that death was but an illusion.

Second:

the story is an allegory about good and evil. How the good is always attacked by the bad. The story shows how this happens, why it happens(it is such a threat to those who want the world to stay as it is because they benefit in power and riches). It shows how despite all, good always wins in the end. Good cannot be destroyed and evil has no power.

To me, to say that Jesus was God makes no sense and indeed weakens the whole story so far as to make it worthless. If Jesus was a MAN, an ordinary human being like you and me, the story really packs a punch and is meaningful. If Jesus was God, then it is meaningless because God can do anything and always had choice. Making Jesus God makes a mockery and nonsense of the story to me.

The idea that the death of Jesus was the sacrifice God needed in order to assuage his anger at the sins of people is an abomination to me. What sort of monster is being described here? An egotistical megalomaniac with little regard for the feelings and welfare of others!

In the end we can get bogged down trying to figure these things out. It is always well to bear in mind the context within which we learned of this story. If we were born at another place, in another culture, we would not be pondering this story because it would not be part of the fabric of our society!

It is more important to understand that the real issue is that we are loved unconditionally (including regardless of our beliefs) and through knowing this and understanding this we can let go of fear and thus evil.