Lunacy
- Gary Fritsch
- Apr 9
- 2 min read
Thousands upon thousands of people came to hear Jesus speak. They were astounded by His teaching, and even more so by the signs and wonders He worked among them. There is no doubt that, for them, He was the most amazing person that they had ever met. Except that is not what He wanted or claimed to be.
Follow me for a moment. There was a movement in the world in the 18th century (the Enlightenment) to scientifically dissect the historical Jesus and unmask who He truly was. At the conclusion of this, many came away saying that Jesus was indeed a historical figure and was a teacher of great renown and someone who created quite a stir among the Jewish people. But they stopped there, saying there was no scientific evidence of the miracles that Jesus performed, and even went so far as to say that He never claimed to be God, but that His followers, after the fact, embellished and allowed His fame to grow to the point of making claims about a Resurrection from the dead.
C.S. Lewis used today's Gospel - which we have to remember had its beginnings in the time of direct memory of Jesus - to support his argument. When these stories were circulated, the thousands who listened to Jesus would have still been around to refute error in the story - AND in the incredible oral tradition of the Jewish people - inaccuracy in the telling of a story was NOT TOLERATED. C.S. Lewis penned the great trilemma: Jesus is either a Liar, a Lunatic, or He is in fact, the Lord. Contrary to the conclusion of some of the Enlightenment philosophers and historians, Jesus did claim to not only be a god, but THE GOD. "Before Abraham came to be, I AM"
So we have a first-hand account from the Apostle John, confirmed, not disputed by other witnesses that Jesus claimed to be God and to be in existence before someone who lived more than a thousand years prior. This leaves us with the trilemma: Jesus either knows He is not God but claims to be (a Liar), believes He is God, but isn't (a Lunatic) or He is in fact who He says He is - The Lord.
So will you truly take Him at His word about who He is? If so, you have to accept it all. If you keep reading in the New Testament, you will find that to be very challenging - and exhilarating!
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