What is a "Jesus year"?
Your Jesus year is your 33rd year of life, referring to Christ’s age when he was crucified. If someone is celebrating their upcoming "Jesus year," they mean they're celebrating their thirty-third birthday. It's known as a "Jesus year" in reference to the age Jesus Christ was believed to be when he died on the cross, according to the Bible. The exact age Jesus was when he died isn't completely certain, but scholars believe it was around 33. Luke 3:23 specifies that Christ was about 30 when he began doing his major works, and was in ministry for about three years before he was crucified. Meet the wikiHow Experts Wendy Lynne is a life and relationship coach based in Redmond, WA who helps individuals break free from fear and limiting beliefs to live a fulfilling and happy life. Kirin Dejonckheere is a certified life coach based in New York City, NY, providing both online and in-person 1:1 coaching sessions tailored to her client’s needs. Kamal Ravikant is the bestselling author of Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It, as well as a podcast host, speaker, and Venture Capitalist. Zach Pontrello is an embodied leadership and relationship coach helping people build better relationships with themselves and their partners.
Why is a Jesus year special?
Your Jesus year is thought to be a time of transformation and growth. Christ is believed to have performed most of his major works in his early thirties and was killed and resurrected at 33. It's pretty unlikely that the same thing will happen to any of us at the same age, but nevertheless, your 33rd year is thought to be a year in which some of the most significant events will happen to you and in which you might even discover your ultimate purpose. Your 33rd year could involve both internal and external changes—you might experience the greatest spiritual transformation of your life, or you may undergo a breakup, fall in love, or change careers. You may realize the things you clung to in your twenties—a job you're unhappy with, an unstable relationship, fair-weather friends—just aren't serving you and need to be scrapped in order to make room for new and better things.
Many people find happiness and understand their purpose around age 33. For many people, age 33 is when they begin to experience a sense of self-fulfillment and a greater understanding of their purpose in life. There's actually a psychological basis to this: according to a 2012 study performed by British social networking site Friends Reunited, "70% of respondents over the age of 40 claimed they were not truly happy until they reached 33." "The age of 33 is enough time to have shaken off childhood naiveté and the wild scheming of teenaged years without losing the energy and enthusiasm of youth," says Donna Dawson, a psychologist involved in the study. "By this age innocence has been lost, but our sense of reality is mixed with a strong sense of hope, a ‘can do’ spirit, and a healthy belief in our own talents and abilities."
Celebrating a Jesus Year Birthday
Set intentions for the year ahead. Your Jesus year is a time for reflecting on your life and taking steps towards fulfilling your purpose. On that note, certified life coach Kirin Dejonckheere recommends "taking a moment on [your birthday] to reflect and journal on your achievements and set intentions for the years to come." What have you accomplished in the last year that you're proud of? What do you want to manifest in your Jesus year? Get yourself in the right headspace for what might be your most life-changing year yet by journaling about the previous year and your dreams for the future, praying (if that's your thing) for guidance and wisdom, or making a vision board to help you visualize your goals and make it easier to achieve them.
Consider an experiential birthday celebration. Birthday parties are a fun classic—but why not try something new and transformative to kick off such a transformative year? Dejonckheere observes that one of the nice things about getting older is the ability to "[create] an experience [rather] than an actual party, like a weekend getaway or trying something new, [like] a cooking class, or something extreme [like] skydiving." If you have a bucket list, 33 is a great birthday to try to cross some things off the list! You don't need to break the bank to have an experiential birthday. Check out our list of inexpensive and free birthday celebration ideas! Looking for happy birthday wishes to send to friends entering their Jesus year? Check out our "happy 33rd birthday" wishes article!
Do Jesus-y things. Birthday parties are famously a time to be as self-absorbed as possible: it's your time, and you shouldn't apologize for that! But in honor of the good works Jesus did in his early thirties, why not celebrate the big 3-3 by giving back to the world? Invite your friends to meet you at a local food pantry to volunteer your time, visit a nursing home, or hand-write letters to people you love just to make them feel special. Guaranteed, doing Jesus-y things on your birthday will make you feel amazing, too!
What should I do in my Jesus year?
Reevaluate your life. Being 33 is a time for the old you to metaphorically die and for the new and improved you to rise from the grave, sort of like Jesus. It's a time to reflect on your life as it is now, and to ask yourself what's serving you and what might not be anymore. How do you envision your dream future? What steps do you need to take to get there? If you do some reflecting and realize you're not where you thought you'd be by 33, don't be too hard on yourself. Everyone takes different paths in life, and there's no "deadline." Remember: it's never too late to start living the life you want to live.
Try new things. Most people think of their teens and twenties as the years when we experiment and learn who we are—and there's truth to that, but that doesn't mean you stop trying new things, growing, and being curious as soon as we hit 30. Just like Jesus performed his major miracles in his early thirties, culminating in the ultimate transformation via death on the cross, you can step out of your comfort zone to try new things as well. Is there a skill you've always wanted to learn? Take a class! Want to push yourself to read more books? Plow through your TBR pile this year. Want to change the world? Volunteer in your neighborhood for a cause you find meaningful—change starts locally!
Practice accepting yourself for who you are. For most people, their teens and twenties are for experimenting and figuring out who they are, and your early thirties are the years when you begin to settle into your identity and become comfortable with yourself—after all, you're all you've got, and you're stuck with you forever! Might as well try to make peace with who you are—and we guarantee, that person is pretty cool. If you struggle with loving and accepting yourself, here are some tips that can make it a little easier to do: Embodied leadership and relationship coach Zach Pontrello suggests making a habit of reciting positive affirmations, like "I accept who I am as a person, I accept who I am as an individual. I am enough." Kamal Ravikant, author of the book Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It, points out that "self-love is a practice, just like going to the gym is a practice, just like eating healthy is a practice." So if you find it hard or even impossible to do, be gentle with yourself, and trust the process. EXPERT TIP Wendy Lynne Wendy Lynne Life and Relationship Coach Wendy Lynne is a life and relationship coach based in Redmond, WA. In 2009, Wendy founded Wendy Lynne Coaching to help individuals break free from fear and limiting beliefs to live a fulfilling and happy life. With experience in relationship, career, health, and life coaching, Wendy was named a top coach by coachfoundation.com. She was trained by Martha Beck as a Life Coach and by The Life Coach School as a Master Life Coach. She is an Internal Family Systems Therapist and received advanced training in relationship coaching from the Hendricks Institute. Wendy also graduated from UCLA with a BA in Sociology and has previous experience as a Managing Director at the Mental Toughness Academy. Wendy Lynne Wendy Lynne Life and Relationship Coach You don’t need to try to love yourself—you are already completely lovable. What gets in the way are layers of beliefs, stories, and cultural messages telling you you're not good enough. So the real work is identifying and removing those layers.
Be kind to others. Make the golden rule your motto for 33: Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Whether you're religious or not, you can't deny Jesus was a pretty cool dude: he hung out with baddies and was kind, compassionate, and nonjudgmental towards everyone (except, like, evil politicians). Why not take this energy with you into your thirty-third year? As Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."
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