When liars and lunatics fail.

Feeling myself in a philosophical mood today, I have a question for you and please answer honestly to yourself. There will be no quiz. Was Jesus a good man? Please pause here and formulate your answer. This is by no means an original question and what follows will not be an original line of reasoning. It’s attributed to CS Lewis, yes the Chronicles of Narnia guy. So here we go, let’s discuss your answer. If you said no, then you may as well stop here, for what follows will probably not even strike a chord with you. If you said yes, then please proceed. Another question, was Jesus a good teacher? Again, please prepare your own original answer. Again, if no, then may as well stop here. If yes, here we go again.
So you stepped out and said yes! Then let’s look at a few things that Jesus said and taught. He said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father, except he come through me.” Pretty exclusive statement don’t you think. He said, while referring to God’s people as sheep, “He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber….I am the door.” Pretty strong language coming from Jesus, but it came from him nonetheless. One last quote now, he said “I and the Father are one.” Now you may say that he was just referring to a close relationship to God as oneness. If that were the case, then why did the Jews immediately pick up stone to stone him to death for blasphemy. So, you said yes to the good man and good teacher question. I ask you, would he lie to you if he were both of these. No, He wouldn’t. So is He a liar? Is He a bad man and teacher?
Maybe there’s another choice here. Maybe He wasn’t these things, but believed He was. That would make Him a lunatic. In today’s diagnosis He would probably be called delusional, or a paranoid schizophrenic. This also takes away that good teacher and good man status. I mean after all, He believed these things so strongly that He went to His death on the cross willingly. He went out of some perverse idea that His own death would save us. Was he a lunatic?
Here’s the gut wrenching decision we all must make, are these lies or the truth. Are they the delusional ravings of a crazy or demon possessed man? A lot of those that heard Him said they were. A lot of people who followed Him around the countryside and listened to everything He said just couldn’t get past these statements. We are told that they went back (to their former beliefs) and never followed Him again. If they are lies or ravings then they can be dismissed, but if they are the truth, then shouldn’t we pay more attention to all of what He said.
By the way, there is a third choice. That choice would be that He is Lord; just liked He claimed He was. By this, I mean that He was God in the flesh, come down to dwell among us, live in flesh like us and die in our place to take the punishment that we each deserved. He did all of this so we could be free to choose whether or not we believed Him.
So here we are at the end of my blog, no altar call, no hymns playing, and no pressure to either believe or not to. I’m just stating the facts as clearly as I can in my own muddled way. Oh, one last fact, He rose again from the grave. He was really dead and God really brought Him back to life. This was proof from God that everything that He said was true.
I hope that, in spite all of the garbage that has been said and taught concerning Jesus, this may clear a few things up in your mind.