Can anyone change your mind?
October 8, 2026A child born in Silicon Valley will live a different life than one born in North Korea. One whose first sight is Greenland’s icebergs will aim for a different horizon than one carried on his mother’s back through sub-Saharan Africa. What about a child born in Palestine? In the small town of Bethlehem.
Two thousand years ago, that region was called Judea. An occupied province of the Roman Empire, it was watched for political and religious uprisings. Taxed and subdued, its inhabitants knew a life governed by force.
This child’s parents did not even live in Bethlehem of Judea. They were forced to travel there for an imperial census, a power play imposed by Rome. There was no close family nearby. No guest room at the inn. The young mother gave birth to her firstborn son in a manger. Far from the best start in life!
And it got worse. Soon after the birth, his parents fled with the baby to Egypt, as hunted refugees. The old king, Herod, had heard of a prophecy that disturbed his capital, about a newborn in Bethlehem who would one day be the king. He ordered every boy under the age of two in that small town to be killed. When the tyrant finally died, the family came back, only to find his successor was worse. So they avoided living near the capital and set off for their own region instead, somewhere up north.
The child grew up in what his own nation called ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’, a border-land of different nations. With a mixed population, it lacked the pure bloodline prized in Jerusalem. It was the most exposed region, open to military invasion, surrounded by pagan neighbours, distant from Jerusalem’s elites, its temple and rituals. Who would choose to raise a child there?
The village was Nazareth. People said nothing good ever came from it. Their sacred writings never once mentioned Nazareth. Even fewer chances that someone from there could change the world. It was completely overlooked.
The son was raised there, in devotion to God, shaped by Scripture rather than trained by the famous rabbis. At the age of twelve, he visited Jerusalem and sat with the temple’s respected teachers. He amazed them. He could answer their hardest questions, and pose even harder ones of his own.
At thirty, he stepped into public life. He walked through region after region: Galilee, Judea, Samaria, even the Decapolis, the ten cities where diverse cultures and faiths mixed. Crowds followed him as he announced the imminent coming of God’s kingdom. His message went beneath outer religious behaviour, demanding instead a change of heart, a new spiritual birth. Honest confessions. Righting the wrongs. Forgiving and healing. Rebuking the pious hypocrisy, he reached out and defended the most vulnerable. Counter-intuitively, he taught his listeners to love their enemies. ‘Do to others what you would have them do to you,’ he declared. (We still revere this saying today as the Golden Rule.)
His public work could only last three and a half years. Religious leaders grew envious, then fearful, turning their shrewdness into violence. They bribed one of his companions, who betrayed him with a kiss. He was arrested that night, and his followers scattered into the dark. Condemned on false charges and testimonies, he was handed over to the Romans, who crowned him with thorns, and executed him as an enemy of Caesar. Stripped bare, mocked, crucified. A handful of terrified friends buried him in a borrowed tomb. And yet . . .
Someone else had the final word. Soon after his crucifixion, his followers stepped out into the light, proclaiming his resurrection. No matter how unbelievable it sounded. No matter the threats. They were ready to lay down their lives for the truth they had witnessed with their own eyes.
Two thousand years later, he is still followed. Across every culture and language on earth. One could ask: how is that possible? And what made the difference?
If you have never heard his name, it is Jesus. And there’s a world to discover about him. If you have heard it, then his name undoubtedly comes loaded: for some, it’s the name above all names; for others, it has been twisted to justify hypocrisy and harm.
Whatever his name evokes for you, we are not here to sell you our Jesus. We’re here to invite you to try him.
Worth a try?
The Try Jesus! invitation is simple: come and see for yourself. Not through someone else’s filtered opinion, not relying on secondhand claims. But getting the eyewitness accounts, the primary sources, their own stories. As if you were there, front row.
Take your time. Doubts are welcome. Questions are honoured, and answers are promised. We know: it’s a journey.
