You Can’t Change History — But It Can Change You

There’s a growing trend in modern culture to label historical figures with contemporary identities — sexual, medical, psychological, political. Whether it’s diagnosing Margaret Thatcher with autism, calling Alexander the Great bisexual, or suggesting Joan of Arc was transgender, we seem determined to fit the past into today’s categories. 

But history doesn’t work like that. 

As N.T. Wright has pointed out, even Jesus is not immune to this treatment. Depending on who’s speaking, Jesus becomes a guru, a revolutionary, a freedom fighter, a social justice warrior, or a conservative moralist. Political parties and theologians alike try to claim him for their cause. But the Jesus of history — the Jewish Messiah walking dusty roads in Roman-occupied Judea — resists these projections. 

The problem isn’t just academic. It’s spiritual. 

When we reshape history to suit our preferences, we lose the opportunity to be challenged by it. We trade transformation for comfort. We stop asking what these figures — especially Jesus — might say to us and instead tell them what they should have said. 

Diagnosing Alfred the Great with Crohn’s disease or King George III with porphyria might be interesting, but it risks turning complex lives into case studies. Speculating about Darwin’s mental health or Lincoln’s sexuality may sell books, but it often tells us more about our own cultural anxieties than about the people themselves. 

History is not a mirror. It’s a window. 

And when it comes to Jesus, the quality of the data we have from the Gospels about first-century Palestine is second to none. It gives us a front-row seat into the life, teaching, and claims of Jesus of Nazareth. That incredible data is not there so we can categorise him or label him correctly. It’s there so his lifestyle, teaching, and claims can change ours. 

You can’t change history. You can only let it change you. 

So let the past speak. Let Joan of Arc confuse you. Let Darwin puzzle you. Let Thatcher provoke you. But don’t try to make them fit your mould. And most of all, let the historical Christ, crucified, resurrected, ascended and returning transform you.  Don’t change the data, let the data change you.