Looking back over 33 years

Today I turn 33 years old. It's the so-called "Jesus year," because if you take the mention of Jesus' age in Luke 3:23 ("Now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry") and combine that with the apparent three-year ministry depicted in the gospel of John, you come up with 33 for Jesus' age when he was crucified.

So it's perhaps a good time to look back and see what some notable figures in history had done by their Jesus year. Let's see:

Jesus: Atoned for the sins of humanity, initiated the inbreaking of the kingdom of God, reconciled the world to God's own self, died at 33 and rose again.

Alexander the Great: Conquered the known world, died of a fever at 32 after several days of heavy drinking.

John Keats: Established himself as the most brilliant of the Romantic poets, died in his 26th year of tuberculosis.

Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur defined 1990s gangsta rap in all its gritty reality and audacious excess, and were promptly killed within months of one another after engaging in their famous East Coast/West Coast feud. Both died in their mid-20s.

Joan of Arc saved France from England during the Hundred Years' War and established herself as a national heroine, died at the stake at 19 but named a saint in the 20th century.

Caesar Augustus (then known as Octavian) defeated Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. when he was 32 years old, thus consolidating his control over the Roman Empire. He actually lived to a ripe old age.

Me - Alive and well at 33. And still in graduate school.