Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you 

can cut it down.'   (Lk 13:6 7). 

    The three years that the fruit tree stood without bearing fruit represent the three years of Jesus' Ministry. 

Many rejected Jesus during His Ministry, many turned away and refused to accept Him (cf. Jn 1:10). Part way 

into the fourth year of His Ministry, Jesus died for us on the Cross, and the fruit of His teaching and His 

Ministry finally bore fruit in the establishment of the Christian Church (cf. Jn 12:24). If Christ had not suffered 

and died, would His Ministry still have born fruit? If Christ taught for three years but did not die for us, would 

the Christian Church even exist? Again, the length of the Ministry of Jesus is revealed in His teaching, in the 

form of a parable. 

      and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be 

nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.  (Rev 19:6). 

    The great suffering of the  Church described in the book of Revelation, and predicted by the prophets of 

Sacred Scripture, will last about 3  years (cf. Rev 11:3; 13:5; Dan 7:25; 9:7; 12:7, 11, 12). These 3  years of 

trials for the Church have the same length as the Ministry of Jesus. Just as Jesus nourished the nascent Church 

for the 3  years of His Ministry, so also will Jesus again nourish the Church, for the same length of time, 

during the Church's time of great suffering.

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    Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich also confirms that the Ministry of Jesus lasted about 3  years. She 

places the Baptism of Jesus by John in the autumn, in early October.

49

 All four Gospels mark the Baptism of 

Jesus by John as the beginning of Jesus' Ministry (e.g. Lk 3:21 23). Jesus died and rose from the dead at the 

time of the Passover, which is in the spring. So, the total length of Jesus' Ministry, ending with His 

Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension in the springtime, could not be a whole number of years, but must 

include a half year. 

    Also, Blessed Anne Catherine relates how Jesus, at the beginning of His Ministry, knew that His Crucifixion 

would occur 3  years from that time.

50

 Shortly after Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan river, Jesus was 

speaking to some people who lived in that area. They complemented Jesus on His appearance.  Jesus 

remarked that, three and a half years hence, they would see no beauty in Him, they would not even recognize 

Him so disfigured would He be. 

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 Jesus was referring to His Crucifixion. This conversation occurred  soon 

after Jesus was baptized, that is, soon after His Ministry began. 

The Ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus 

     And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit 

and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the 

just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.  (Lk 1:16 17; cf. Is 40:3). 

     As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, `Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy 

way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight '   

(Mk 1:2 3). 

    How much time passed between the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist and the beginning of the 

Ministry of Jesus Christ? There is no plain statement in Sacred Scripture which explicitly answers this 

question. However, there are some indications in Sacred Scripture that this length of time was relatively brief. 

    Matthew's Gospel begins its description of John's ministry at Mt 3:1, and first mentions Christ's Baptism at 

Mt 3:13. Only 12 verses are used to describe John's ministry before Christ's Baptism. In the Gospel of Mark, 

only 7 verses are given to this same period of time. John's ministry begins at Mk 1:2, and the Baptism of Jesus 

begins at Mk 1:9. The Gospel of John first mentions the Baptism of Jesus in the past tense, at Jn 1:32 34. The 

number of verses which refer to John before this point are few: Jn 1:6 8, 15, 19 31 (a total of 17 verses). Luke's 

Gospel gives the greatest number of verses, 20, to this length of time, from Lk 3:1 to 3:20. None of the Gospel 

writers devotes even a whole chapter to the space of time from the start of John's ministry to the start of Jesus' 

Ministry. In this way, Sacred Scripture indicates that this length of time was relatively brief. 

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