When I was growing up I don’t think I ever thought about the meaning of masculinity. It hasn’t occupied much of my attention over the years either. All sorts of unconscious factors have clearly shaped (or misshaped) my thinking of course. My dad’s military career in the SAS was clearly one of the many unconscious influences that impacted me over the years, but I’ve never been troubled by this issue, unlike lots of men today it seems.

I became aware of this when listening to Radio 4 recently and discovered that Rylan Clark has just produced a series of podcasts entitled ‘How to be a man’. He has interviewed an intriguing collection of people too, including a triple amputee, a boxer, a transman, a boxer and journalist and media personality Janet Street Porter.

But as I looked at Rylan’s ‘bunch of interesting people’ I couldn’t help wondering why he hadn’t found time to chat with someone about the most fascinating man in history. I’m talking of Jesus of course.

Now I know one recent survey has suggested that a large number of people of don’t realise Jesus was a real person and many 18 to 34-year-olds think Jesus was a mythical or fictional character, but those who think like that are either ignoring or are unaware of the overwhelming historical evidence. Jesus was a first century Jew who had the most amazing impact on the people of His day so much so that His closest were willing to die rather than deny He had conquered death.

All of which suggests He is worth looking at. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that we would do well to see Him as the ‘Paradigm Man’ or to put it more simply our ‘Ultimate Role Model’. Let me explain why.

To begin with Jesus was just about as brave as you get. Take the day He entered Jerusalem prior to His death. In many ways it reminds me of what the first world war poet Wilfred Owen said when he was reflecting on the time he spent in the trenches. “The sensations of going over the top are about as exhilarating as those dreams of falling over a precipice when you see the rocks at the bottom surging up to meet you. I woke up without being squashed. Some didn’t”.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday he knew what was coming. He had been waiting for this moment for years and he knew it would be a week of confrontation, humiliation and ultimately execution. But He didn’t flinch; He ‘went over the top’ because He knew it was the right thing to do.

He wasn’t ashamed to display His emotions either. That became perfectly clear when he was faced with the death of his very close friend Lazarus. ‘Jesus wept’ we are told. He was not embarrassed to cry then, just as He was not too timid to display his anger when he gazed at the money lenders and traders conducting their trade in the Jerusalem Temple. He overturned their tables and whipped them out!

No one’s perfect we often say. Well, if you think like that perhaps you ought to revise that popular dictum. His friends said that He was and they were willing to lay their lives on the line for it. He never made that claim for Himself, of course, but those who knew Him best tell us that He was a man of total integrity, a man who was the very opposite of self-centred and a man who always sought to make life better for those who met Him. Now I can’t understand why any man wouldn’t want to be like that. If you want to understand masculinity, then spend some time reading the Gospels.

• Rob James is a Baptist pastor, writer, and broadcaster