Lord, Liar, or Lunatic? An Important Question

10/2020     Daniel (see HERE)

“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.”

 I found myself referring to this quote from C.S. Lewis’ book, “Mere Christianity” in a sidewalk conversation with a thoughtful young man named Daniel.  Daniel seemed to really understand the lifechanging implications of Jesus really being the Lord of our lives, and argued against that possibility.

 So I asked him, and I pose the question here – what if Jesus really is God in the flesh, the God of the Universe, Creator, not creation?  Given the life he lived, the lessons he taught, and the example he set, what would it mean for us if he really is Lord of all, including every aspect of our lives? 

 Well, we may not exactly know ourselves, and we may have a fear of the unknown.  But why not take his word for it?  One thing Jesus told his followers was this:  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 This passage is comforting, but it’s not easy to follow Jesus.  After all, he also told his followers that “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” 

 Taken together for context, we can conclude that Jesus does demand 100% allegiance, to the point that we must be willing to go to the cross for Him as He did for us, but he also promises to be with us, to teach us, to be gentle with us, and to give us rest.  He demonstrates his love by suffering and dying in our place at the cross, and he validates his love by overcoming death and the grave in his resurrection.

Lord, liar, or lunatic?  It’s an important question, and the implications are overwhelming.

 

Thanks, Daniel, for allowing me to record our conversation!  It can be seen on my YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/FLuA35peJq4