When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? – Matthew 16:13
Once upon a time, there was a man called Jesus.
That he existed is simply a statement of historical fact, with more evidence for his existance than for other historical figures such as Julius Caesar.
But the issue that divides everyone about Jesus is one question: who was he?
Was he a mad man who should have been admitted onto a psychiatric ward?
Was he a manipulative cult figure able to fool many thousands of people into thinking he was a “good teacher”?
Or was he who he said he was…God in the form of a human?
This is the “Mad, Bad or God” argument posited in Lewis’ Trilemma:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. – C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity
Who was Jesus?
Or, more importantly, who is Jesus?
Because if he’s just another historical figure who lived, died and was buried, then regardless of what title we want to put on him (Good Teacher, Prophet, Inspirational Leader, Zealot, Martyr)…his death makes him simply a remarkable alumnus of the human race.
Just like Mohammed, or Buddha or Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa or Whitney Houston or Steve Jobs.
Remarkable humans who left a dent in the Universe during their brief time on Earth before they died and were buried.
But what sets Jesus apart is his extremely bold and blatant claim. Paraphrased:
I will be killed and come back to life on the third day. (Matthew 16:21)
If this statement is true, then the implications for all of humanity are tremendous.
Because Jesus coming back to life from the dead forces us to pay attention to all the other bold statements that he is on record for saying.
Controversial statements like:
I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father, except through me. (John 14:6)
No middle ground.
He’s drawing a line in the sand and stating that the only way to be right with God is through a relationship with Jesus.
We can try to get around this by challenging whether or not God exists or by sacrificing inconvenient truths on the altars of tolerance, inclusiveness and carnality masquerading as spirituality.
But the truth that we know inside, is that we are hiding.
We don’t want to take an hour away from peers and religious rhetoric to simply look at the words of Jesus for ourselves, see what the implications are for our lives if they actually are true…and then make a decision.
Will you believe that Jesus is who he said he is, yes or no?
It’s a simple choice, with powerful implications no matter what you choose.
And sticking your head in the sand or “choosing not to choose” when you’re in the path of an oncoming hurricane is still a choice.