At the time of Jesus, the Essenes were very booming, with about 4,000 people, a group of strict ascetic devout Jews. The Essenes existed since the times of the Maccabees. They were patriotic Jews, descendants of the Hasidim. On the one hand they could not accept the culture of the Greek Empire. On the other hand they could not accept the way of worship of the priests in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which they considered corrupt. Nor could they accept the Pharisees’ compromise with society in their daily lives. Therefore they withdrew into the desert (1 Maccabees 2:29， 1 Maccabees 7:13-17）。 They considered the world being impure, filled with sin and darkness. In order to keep the absolute law of purity, they had to leave the world and prepare in the desert the way of the kingdom. Since they isolated themselves from the world and did not like contacting with outsiders there is no record of them meeting with Jesus or the disciples in the New Testament.

The difference between Jesus and the Essenes is: Though Jesus knew there was evil in the world he did not abhor nor fear it. He stressed that he and his believers “ belonged to the world and yet do not belong to the world” ,( John 15:18-19）， He asked his disciples to be the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”. ( Matthew 5:13-14）。 He prayed to God the Father: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.”( John 17:15）。

Jesus did not come to judge the world ( John 12:47）， but he came so that they may have life, and have it to the full . ( John 10:10）。 Jesus did not accept the world’s standard of wealth, fame and power; He did not separate the “clean” from the “unclean”; ( Mark 7:14-19）、 the “sacred” from the “worldly”( Mark 2:23-28）。 He contacted all kinds of people including those rejected by society like the tax-collectors, prostitutes, lepers, the blind and delivered to them the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus did not preach asceticism and did not opt for a monastic style of community life for his disciples, such as fixed rules of daily life, timetable, ascetic practices. Jesus did not even ask the disciples to cut off from family ties ( John 2:1）； Rather the most important thing was to free oneself from all social restrictions in order to serve people, for example to heal the sick, to exorcise, to spread the kingdom of God ( Luke 9:1-2)；( Mark 6:7； Matthew 10:1， Matthew 13:35 ） to free oneself by forgiving others and to reconcile with them. ( Mark 11:25， Matthew 5:24）

Jesus was not a king, a priest, a scribe or a monk. He was an ordinary man without any power or money. His teachings of the kingdom were for the ordinary people, He valued the ordinary people and he preached the kingdom of heaven to ordinary people, ( Luke 6:20-26 ; Matthew 5:1-12 ）, the handicapped, ( Matthew 11:5-6 ）, and sinners ( Matthew 21:31-32 ）。 He believed that man needed to free himself of all class structures, to become a servant of all people and to serve the world Mark 9:35 ，( Matthew 23:11）

When Jesus left the city, he carried the cross and was led with difficulty to the place of execution; the rulers had found a pretext to nail him to the cross.