Okradlak
About Jesus and the three hours of pain.
Consider this (let's see whether I can express it).
Jesus claims he is one and the same with God, the Eternal.
As such he actually exists outside time.
Thus, though his time on earth was thirty something of our years, he was/is existing as always, outside Time.
Jesus, therefore, if one accepts his divinity, experiences all things, at all times.
He wailed with grief for the death of a best friend, on earth (John 11).
He starved himself for five weeks, with the full power to simply *think* a feast into existence.
He was harassed everywhere he went by the people who should have supported him most, the religious leaders.
He was hunted for his life.
Mobs attempted to kill him twice.
He experienced so much stress anticipating his own coming trauma, he broke blood vessels in his face.
Plus the twenty four hours or so of torture up to his death.
In addition to this he knows every sorrow, pain, and need of everyone in Time.
All of this is eternal "now" for him. One of the names of God is simply "I AM" for this reason.
The implication, to me, is astounding. Such a God, who became truly human, therefore for the Eternal Now IS "one of us."
Iraneaus writes only fifty eight years after Christ's death (less than the time from us to World War II). The date of his work is undisputed.
He is completely convinced of The deity of Jesus. And he believes the most important thing he did was to live a human life, for exactly the reason you imply, okradlak. We can't see God. We don't relate to that spiritual stuff. And he made us that way, too!
So God is born as a real person, lives a natural human life, does nothing any other human prophet has done (that is, none of his miracles were unique or divine). "Just a slob like one of us," for real. All the way to his death.
He said, "It's finished!" just before he died. What was finished? His human life, he put the seal on the gift for us with his death.
Jesus said "I am the way" (note the I AM - Jews never used those words in his time, they'd ellipse the pronoun). But I do not believe we earn Hell Points for needing to look elsewhere.
It's interesting to compare the gospels of the Christian Bible (a good modern translation, try looking at the ESV, CEV or Holman's), and the writings of His Holiness Dali Lama.
Personally I haven't found a "yoke" as light as Christ's, but I know many people judge by religionists rather than reading his words for themselves. it's remarkable what has been added to the simple words of love there. <3