Jesus had nothing special to say. He repeated some stuff that many before and after him said. He was inconsistent, argumentive, and rude, while also being nice, caring, generous and loving. He was born and he died. Sounds like your average dude to me.
What seperates him from some other martyrs are his miracles and the resurrection. Its these two added things that has made his "message" so powerful and so dangerous. If you took these two things away he would be just some loud mouth dude that caused a tiny stir in the a tiny part of the world 2000 years ago. Much like Ghandi will be viewed 2000 years from now. If you think about it Ghandi had a similar message and his movement actually did what Jesus failed to do, liberate his people . Like Jesus, Ghandi was killed by one of his own. Guess what though, who cares? Frankly what happens on that side of the world does not concern me. Its just something you learn in history class...unless.... you add that he was the son of god, he raised people from the dead, he cured sickness and, on top of all that, was raised from the dead; everyone would care!! Everyone would begin to take notice. At that time, his movement would have spread from India to Britain (the biggest Imperial Empire ever) then to all over the world.
These lies, however, could not have survived. By that time we already had cameras, television, radios and much more. People would have demanded evidence not just word of mouth.
The Jesus movement was during a time when people were less informed, less educated and less skeptical.
And this is why the movement, not his words, are so harmful. They keep people less informed, less educated and less skeptical. They allow people to evade (see Terry's post) reality. Take away all the magic and he is just another dude.
