Many were enthusiastic about Jesus ‘ preaching, believing him to be the Messiah who would lead the revolt against Rome. But he made it clear to people that his idea of salvation was ethical, not political.

Having solemnly entered Jerusalem, Jesus organized a kind of demonstration against the religious regime, but showed no hostility to the power of Rome. He was soon arrested by the Jewish spiritual authorities with the help of Judas, one of his disciples. Jesus was accused of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God and the Messiah. The court sentenced him to death, and in order for the sentence to be confirmed by the Roman authorities, Jesus was also accused of preparing a rebellion.

The Procurator, Pontius Pilate approved the death sentence, and Jesus was crucified on the cross. This kind of punishment the Romans used only in relation to robbers and rioters. In this death, with all its cruelty and injustice, the main idea of Christianity – the idea of salvation-is focused. Jesus had already prepared his disciples for this idea, though they hardly fully understood it.

The body of Jesus was after his death carried by his followers to a nearby crypt, hollowed out in the rock. But two days later, the disciples were surprised to find the crypt empty.

The significance of this event became clear to them much later, after several meetings with Jesus himself, alive and real, but no longer limited by time or space. He could suddenly appear and just as suddenly disappear, even from a closed room. Over the course of several weeks, the students saw the teacher several more times under various circumstances. Again he explained to them the meaning of his life and death, the purpose of the mission to which he had instructed them. Then Jesus left them, and they began to preach to the world that he who had conquered death itself was the Lord and Saviour. It was the resurrection of Jesus that formed the basic idea of early Christianity, where the Lord rose from the dead was revered.