What I was absolutely sure of was that Jesus had astonishingly good insights into human nature, and how to work with it.
 
For example, I found the parable about the man who was ordered to carry a Roman soldier’s heavy shield for a mile, then volunteered to carry it for an additional mile, to be a great lesson in a form of emotional judo. It enabled enslaved or otherwise denigrated people to assert some agency and freedom by voluntarily doing more than what was required—and by this action, showing themselves to be actually greater than the people attempting to demean them.
 
Likewise, to me today, what’s usually described as the “miracle of the loaves and fishes” isn’t some kind of magical or otherwise supernatural feat.  It’s that when just one small boy was willing to share all the food he had with the rest of the people gathered for the Sermon on the Mount, older and more prosperous folks felt honor- and prestige-bound to step up and share a least a portion of their own food—and as a result, the crowd got a dramatic demonstration of how there was enough to feed everybody, if everybody was just willing to share.

On top of that, when I re-read the biblical accounts of the last supper, it seemed plain to me that what Jesus was telling his followers was that even a simple meal of bread and wine, when consumed by people getting together to enjoy one another’s company; share their thoughts, feelings, and inner warmth; and truly connect (i.e., commune) with one another, this was something to be treasured as a holy sacrament.