There’s different flavors of Jesus in Christianity, depending on the sect. Actually, there have always been different flavors, even among the early church.

Since Jesus spoke to a Jewish audience, his message wouldn’t make sense to our modern Gentile believers.

He spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven/ Kingdom of God being near. Close to fulfillment. He lived at a time when many prophets (or “anointed ones/ messiahs”) spoke of the coming of the Kingdom. In order to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, there would have been a literal, physical Kingdom. Think modern day Israel with a Jewish King reigning from Jerusalem, conquering all the Gentile enemies who would oppose them. It didn’t happen—- it was a failed prophecy. However, well-meaning but ignorant people today are still trying to “help” God by creating a modern day Zionist nation with its government seat in Jerusalem. Ironically, this would be a better fulfillment of the Kingdom of God message than all of the churches, including the Roman Catholic, and 30,000+ Protestant denominations that we see nowadays.

When the Kingdom prophecy failed at about 70AD— Jesus’ generation had come and gone— the Gentiles who would later become the Roman Catholic Church upgraded the message to make it a “spiritual” kingdom all about love and self-improvement. But that wasn’t the original message, and it wouldn’t have worked among the Jewish population (it violates Torah teaching). That’s why most Jews to this day reject Jesus, and why Jesus would not have called himself God’s son (the trinity is a blasphemous concept in Judaism). These modern Christian ideas didn’t come until hundreds of year after Jesus supposedly died. The original message was a Jewish message for a Jewish audience.

As for Jesus coming to die for our sins, that concept didn’t come until much, much later… think John Calvin’s time when substitutionary theory of the atonement developed. Yeah, it’s the prominent message among Protestant Churches in America today, but again it would have been a blasphemous perversion of the Jewish temple practice for Jesus to die as a sacrifice. And it also takes Torah passages massively out of context.

Anyway, if you want any take-away about how to apply Jesus’ teaching to your life, and what his main message should be, it’s this: “So in everything, do unto others as you would have them do to you. That fulfills the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12.

Jesus taught obedience and holiness to a Jewish audience who was under Torah— the Gentiles never were, hence they never had guilt that needed a Savior. And the Jewish audience who broke Torah had guidelines under Torah to remediate it— repentance and prayer, for example, which were the same remedies that Jesus recommended (the Tax Collector beating his chest crying out “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” was justified).

It’s funny how the Church created a “problem” (original sin) that never existed so that their Organization can “help” create the “solution” which conveniently helped them become one of the wealthiest organizations of the world, with no taxes, and no one willing to speak out against their abuses. Jesus would have hated it as much as he hated the Pharisees of his day… so you might not want to trust your local church or pastor, and you should verify everything you hear for yourself.

still gnawing on that bone?

The Central Message is that " A time Cometh when no man shall work" - He Cometh to Judge All, both their Works and Idle or Willful Words!

Modified!
But He gave us glimpses of the types of Judgements we shall get, how the judgment shall be arrived at and how we may obtain favourable Judgments!

Jesus central message is that you should learn to love one another instead of ignorantly tearing one another apart. He championed reading and promoted understanding so you wouldn't be preyed upon with ignorant ideas and beliefs of the sort the op accuses Christians of ignorantly holding on to.

I'd advise that the op learn his Christianity from the Book instead of relying on the practise of the ill-informed who focus on the finger instead of the moon.

budaatum:
Jesus central message is that you should learn to love one another instead of ignorantly tearing one another apart. He championed reading and promoted understanding so you wouldn't be preyed upon with ignorant ideas and beliefs of the sort the op accuses Christians of ignorantly holding on to.

I'd advise that the op learn his Christianity from the Book instead of relying on the practise of the ill-informed who focus on the finger instead of the moon.

Yep, and after all learning and writing the "exams" He shall thereafter evaluate our Performance.