The evidence for Jesus is about as reliable as King Arthur it's more of an impact crater than of an actual historical object but that doesn't rule out the possibility of an actual historical Jesus either it just means there is next to no evidence.
John the Baptist however is highly documented.
There is a lot of evidence that Jesus is Buddha.
Asoka sent out Buddhist missions around the world.
They are recorded in Greece and in Egypt and were very influential.
The Essenes had their "Teacher Of Righteousness" much of his life matches accounts of the life of Buddha and Jesus and fits in the gap between the two.
John the Baptist (a man we know to be real) and by extension some of the reported disciples of Jesus were connected to the Essenes.
So either the actions attributed to Jesus were the acts of someone highly influenced by Buddhism or they were Buddhist stories transferred to Judea.
The nearest historical references to Jesus are to reports of a follower of a teacher many years after Jesus' death.
If there was a man there is nothing to connect him to the so called Q document, this could have been a collection of sermons held by the Essenes and preached by the man who died mixed with his identity.
The parallels between the words of Jesus and his reported biography are astonishingly similar to Buddha (only 300 years later in another place).
The thing about Buddhism is it's a religious overlay.
You can be a Hindu and a Buddhist and there are lots of Christian Buddhists so it's possible that Christianity started as a Kabbalistic merge with Buddhism and took on a unique identity when it collided with Saturn, Horus and Mithras worship in Rome.
Does it really matter?
One reason why there are now Jedi cults devoted to Yoda is because he is a lovable character (and the best introduction to Tao I've ever listened to).
His OT incarnation has a strong ethical and moral code which is challenging.
He doesn't have to be real to be a real inspiration and possibly a saviour if someone is in a bad way if his words put them back on the right track.