-Old Testament prophecy posits a Messiah who will unite the 12 tribes and re-establish the Kingdom of Israel.
-Jesus, if he lived, was a traveling speaker with followers who many felt was this Messiah.
-He was killed.
-Much work has been done on this story since then to mold it into something relevant for other purposes.
-Meanwhile, it's been 2000 years and he hasn't come back.
But look, if it adds meaning to your life, have at it. Most of what humanity does is some form of entertainment or fulfillment or titillation. We only spend a small percentage of our intellect and energy on survival. All the rest is filler.
However, you are claiming things that aren't there such as your claim that Christ said he was not the Messiah. You should educate yourself more in what the Scripture says.
Much work has been done on this story since then to mold it into something relevant
No, there isn't any need to mold it into anything. The Bible stands on its own as truth. Many people like yourself try to mold it to fit the world system. However, the world system is transitory. God's purposes are much higher...eternal life.
Tacitus writing in the Annals in about 116 A.D.:
"Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."
Pliny the Younger in a letter to the Emperor Trajan in about 112 A.D. asking how to proceed with the Christians:
They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food--but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.
Stories? Hmmmmm. Have you stepped outside lately? Most of us in here have “read the bible”. I remind you all that atheism is an intellectually inferior position.
Was he supposed to come back in “X” number of years, “X” set by humanity? Not even the Son knows the day and the hour.
A lot of folks are criticizing the Christ via strawman arguments.
Some oddball Christianesque followings harp a lot on the paucity of recorded direct claims on Jesus’ part and hold Him as less than divine. Jesus himself said “Believe the miracles.” Jesus did the things that would be logical to expect only out of God. God doesn’t huff hot air about Himself. God does things.