Trigger Warning: ‘Who is Jesus?’

“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

That sound-bite is from the Bible, book of Mark, chapter 8, verse 29. It asks a simple question:

“Who is Jesus?”

Some say he never existed.

That’s one answer.

Some say Jesus was a good guy—great teacher. Someone to be respected, appreciated, acknowledged.

Others (including me) agree with the Apostle Peter: He is Messiah.

I’ll add this: Jesus of Nazareth is the “Son of God”: Born of a virgin. Lived a perfect life. Sacrificed himself (willingly and unselfishly) on a cross. “Lamb of God” who took away the sins of the world. Died. Buried. Rose from the dead. Ascended into Heaven and will return—some day.

Jesus is a divisive figure. Sentiments vary about him, his message, and the religion that grew up around him. Here are some examples:

– The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (circa 1952) referred to the carpenter from Nazareth as “the mythological founder of Christianity.”

– Voltaire, the French writer, historian and philosopher, addressed the religion Jesus spawned this way: “Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.”

– Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller fame, offered this observation about the book that Christians study to learn more about their savior: “It’s fair to say that the Bible contains equal amounts of fact, history, and pizza.”

– Mahatma Gandhi was more generous toward Jesus and his mission, describing him as, “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”

Gandhi also reportedly said: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte’s opinion about Christ was decisive and direct: “I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour, millions of men would die for Him.”

– C.S. Lewis, the popular British writer, came up with what Christian apologist Josh McDowell dubbed the “trilemma”:

“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 with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

When I first read that quote about 50 years ago, it stopped me in my tracks, grabbed me by the throat, and rattled my soul.

Of course, not everyone agrees with Lewis.

Here’s an excerpt from an article at Infidels.org written by Jim Perry:

“The argument which (Josh) McDowell calls the ‘trilemma’ is popular among amateur apologists for Christianity. It was first popularized by C.S. Lewis, and has become even more common since McDowell reworked it. It is logically weak, but it is rhetorically powerful—as its popularity and recurrence attest—and so worth considering in more detail than it might otherwise merit.”

Later in the article Perry writes: “…this argument is flawed. First, it relies for impact on a premise which is both ambiguous and controversial, which is the question of just what ‘Jesus’ claims’ were. Second, it makes unwarranted extrapolations from the general idea of saying something known not to be literally true to the worst sort of malicious lying, and from believing something which is not true to raving lunacy.”

(See more at https://infidels.org/library/modern/jim_perry/trilemma.html.)

Why bring this up at all?

Am I a trouble-maker? Rebel-rouser? Religious fanatic who wants to ram his beliefs down somebody’s throat?

Nope, nope, and nope.

(Let’s face it, if I tried to do that, you’d be offended, resentful—and rightly so.)

I’m just a retired guy living in Florida, taking his last lap in life, and feeling that, at this late date, it’s time I made clear my position on Jesus. Do I think I can persuade everybody? Nope. That’s neither my job nor my intent. I just want to be able, when I step into eternity, feel like I made clear what I believe.

Where did I come up with such a crazy idea?

From the Apostle Paul, writing in Romans, chapter 10, verse 9:

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…” (NASB)

This little write-up is my way of declaring, publicly, that I believe that Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, the son of the living God—and that he rose from the dead.

What about you?

Let’s say that, today, you bumped into Jesus at the beach or the mall or at your place of work. You chat a bit, then he looks you straight in the eye, and asks, “Who do you say I am?”

And your answer is . . .

NEXT TIME: “What is Faith?”