Why Jesus can't be just a good bloke?
OK, so we've looked at the
evidence for the existence of Jesus.
you're happy to admit that Jesus lived but you're not sure
about this saviour / messiah / god business? Lots of people think
that Jesus was a pretty good guy. That he wasn't our saviour or
God or anything like that, but he had some good principles and
said some cool stuff. But Jesus can't be
just a good bloke.
Why not?
A writer called CS Lewis (he wrote the Narnia
books) puts it this way:
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 a 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
away with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human
teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
(CS Lewis,
Mere Christianity)
What this means is we can't take the likable
things about Jesus - his kindness to women and children, his
healing of the sick, his social conscience - and then ignore the
uncomfortable things like the fact that he claimed to be God.
So where in the Bible does it say that Jesus
claimed to be God?
There are many references in the gospels to
incidents where Jesus said he was the messiah and the son of God.
Sometimes his comments are clearer (to modern readers) than
others. But to the people of his time, his claims were crystal
clear. Let's take a look at some examples:
- Through his miracles:
The compassion of Jesus is well attested to in the gospel books.
There are heaps of times when he made sick people well, cured
blindness and stopped people from dying. Being able to perform
such miraculous acts points to Jesus being the chosen one. But
even more important that this was his forgiveness of sins.
Illness and disease can cripple a human life in this world, but
it's the problem of sinfulness that destroys our relationship
with God.
- In his teaching and conversations:
Jesus himself admitted that he spoke in pictures and with
figures of speech. However there are many examples of him
referring to his existence before "coming into the world", of
him being the source of life and of him being the one who knows
all things.
- By calling himself "the good shepherd":
It's not the most glamorous career looking after sheep, so there
must be another reason why Jesus called himself "the good
shepherd". And there is! As far as hands on caring goes,
shepherding sheep is one of the most full-on. Not only that,
Jesus is picking up on references in the Old Testament where God
tells the people of Israel that he will be their shepherd. He
will name them, feed them, lead them and protect them. By
calling himself "the good shepherd", Jesus is really saying,
'Hey everyone, I'm God. I'm the saviour you've all being waiting
for'.
- At his trial:
Some of the clearest statements of who Jesus reckons he is were
made at his trial. The Jewish authorities prosecuting him were
outraged at what they thought was blasphemy. That is Jesus
claiming to be the Lord.
© 2002 Christianity.net.au used with
permission