WHY BOTHER WITH JESUS?

Brian was a patient of mine who had just been diagnosed as having secondary cancer in his liver causing him to become jaundiced. He and his wife realised that the outlook was not good. After talking about possible treatment options, I asked Brian, “Do you have a faith that helps you at a time like this?”

He turned to his wife and asked, “Do we, dear?”

As there didn’t appear to be much concern about spiritual things I simply said “For me, knowing that there is a God who loves us and cares for us is the only thing that makes sense of problems like this”, and changed the subject.

The following week, however, I met Brian as he sat in the waiting room for a blood test. He said “You know what you said last week, it is strange but my next door neighbour, who is a Christian, asked us if we would like to go to church. What do you think?”

“I think that is lovely, but honestly Brian I wonder if sitting through some hymns, prayers and a sermon is what you most need at the moment. I would guess what you most need to know is “How can I get right with God?””.

There was a two second pause before Brian looked up and asked

“How do I get right with God?”

We arranged to meet up the following morning at his home and there we went over the basics of the Christian faith. After a few days, first Brian and then his wife became a Christian.

Such experiences have made me certain that there are a growing number of people who, although disillusioned with churches, have many questions they would like resolved. Even the atheist Bernard Levin has written in “The Times” “There are probably more people today seeking some larger meaning or purpose in their lives and in life in general than there have been, certainly in the west, since the day of unquestioned faith.”

Where should people begin the search for answers ?

There is an Italian proverb which says,

“He who leaves God out of his reasoning has forgotten how to count”.

The book ‘Cure for Life’ looks at the answers that Jesus gave. It is an important study for everyone, as Jesus himself claimed to be the one and only way to God, and some of Jesus’ teaching is very startling and demands action. The biggest question is ‘Is it true?’

What is a Christian?

Primarily, a Christian is “Christ’s man”- a person committed to a personal relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus. Today there is a terrible misunderstanding that suggests that anyone who is particularly kind, honest and generally moral is Christian. This is not what Jesus himself taught; he was very clear as to how a person could be acceptable to God. Our great need today is for people to hear Christ’s teaching, to be convinced of its truth, and then get out and live it. First, however, it is important to sort out exactly who Jesus was - or is.

Who was Jesus?

The disciples who lived very closely with Jesus became convinced that Jesus was someone very special indeed, and they wrote down what caused them to come to this conclusion. For example, in the first half of Mark’s Gospel there are several stories, witnessed first hand, about this remarkable man.

a. He had power over the forces of nature.

The disciples were sailing with Jesus across the Sea of Galilee when:

“A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to the disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ ” (Mark 4 v 37-40)

Then, just as we would have, they asked, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.”

b. He had the ability to heal physical illness and even defeat death.

A man of considerable status and authority hurried up to Jesus, dropped to his knees, and pleaded desperately with him. Jairus was one of the synagogue rulers and to see him behaving so humbly before Jesus was in itself astonishing to the bystanders.

“My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”

So Jesus went with him.” ( Mark 5 v. 23-24)

Jesus was delayed by the great crowd that pressed around him, and, before he could get to the child, some men came from Jairus’ house with awful news.

“Your daughter is dead,” they said, “Why bother the teacher any more?”

Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler,

“Don’t be afraid: just believe.”

He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw the commotion, with the people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After he put them all outside, he took the child’s hand and said to her, “Talitha koumi” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately, the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old).” (Mark 5 v. 35-42)

The people were “completely astonished” by this man, who could bring the dead back to life. The disciples were beginning to grasp who this extraordinary man was.

c. He claimed power to forgive sins.

Jesus was preaching in the town of Capurnaum, at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. When people heard he was there, they came crowding in to listen until the house was overflowing.

“Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralysed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ ” (Mark 2 v. 3-7)

What was Jesus claiming? We can all forgive individuals who offend us, but obviously only God can forgive offenses against God. If Jesus were not God then His claim to forgive sin would indeed be blasphemous. To demonstrate that he had God’s authority, he told the paralytic man to get up and go home - and the man, now whole and undoubtedly very happy “took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying ‘We have never seen anything like this.’ ” He was claiming to be God!

d. He claimed to be God.

Later in Mark’s record, there are two climaxes. The first is when Jesus asks his disciples who he really is, and Peter answers, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8 v. 29). The second was at his trial before the High Priest when he was asked bluntly , “Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?” The reply was clarity itself , “I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One.”

The word Christ means the same as Messiah or “Anointed One”. It was the term used in the sacred writings of the Jews, our Old Testament, of the eternal King of God’s people who would rule with perfect justice for ever. A staggering claim!

John recorded Jesus as saying:

“I am God’s Son - do not believe me unless I do what the Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (John 10 v. 36-38)

It is important to realise that, when Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, he meant what Jews of His time would have meant - that He was equal with God. Fathers and sons were more closely identified than they are today; a son was one with his father, to share in his honour or revenge his wrongs. So in saying , “I am the Son of God” he was saying, “I am the incarnation of God, God in the flesh - I am God”. In the past, there have been teachers who said that Jesus never claimed to be divine, but even a superficial study of the apostles’ writings does not leave any room for doubt.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say “Show us the Father”? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words that I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing the work.” ( John 14 v. 6-10)

Even his enemies had no doubt what Jesus was claiming, which is why , on one occasion, when Jesus said, “I and the Father are one”, the Jews picked up stones to stone him. Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” ( John 10 v. 30-33)

The final confirmation came at his trial by the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews. The High Priest, Caiaphas, asked Jesus directly:

“I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

“Yes, it is as you say.” Jesus replied. “In the future, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One.” (Matthew 26 v. 63-64)

The ‘oath by the living God’ was the most serious of Jewish oaths and had to be answered honestly. The judges condemned Jesus for blasphemy. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind exactly who Jesus was claiming to be.

Was Jesus Mad, Bad, or God?

If you stood outside your nearest supermarket armed with the inevitable ball-point and clipboard and asked people, “Who do you think Jesus was?”, what sort of answers would you get? Some might say, “Who’s he?”, others may reply “Don’t care”, “nothing to do with me,” but I expect many would say “a good man” or “a great moral teacher”.

He was indeed a very great teacher.

“The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority”. ( Matthew 7 v. 28-29)

His talks were full of human stories that caught the attention but, at the same time, were exceedingly profound, touching the deepest needs of the listening men and women and giving them joy, freedom from guilt, and a new meaning and purpose in their lives. But he was NOT just a good teacher. The writer C.S.Lewis said:

“That is 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 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 was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but you must not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

As we have seen , Jesus claimed to be infinitely more than just a great teacher. From the accounts of what he said and did, there are only three possible conclusions. Either he was:

BAD

or MAD

or GOD

BAD?

Jesus claimed to be God. If that was not true then he was lying and there is no way that a liar can be called “good” let alone “God”. Furthermore, he promised benefits to his followers that, if he were not God, he could not possibly confer; he raised hopes that if he were not God he could not possibly sustain; he has caused the death by martyrdom of countless men and women from his day to ours - quite pointlessly, if they died for a false reason. If he were not God, then he was an utterly cruel liar and quite simply BAD. However, his friend Peter (who knew him inside out and later chose to die for him) wrote, “He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth”. (1 Peter 2 v. 22 )

MAD?

If someone came up to you today and said “I am God”, what would you think? Wouldn’t you back away nervously, afraid that he had escaped from the nearest mental hospital and was suffering from delusions? Other people have believed themselves to be Napoleon or the Queen of Sheba - or God; so perhaps Jesus was mentally deranged rather than deliberately wicked - in other words, MAD.

His contemporary biographers depicted Jesus as the very opposite type of person. There are no violent mood swings, depressive episodes or the schizophrenic’s tendency to be out of touch with reality. On the contrary, they paint a picture of somebody who is eminently sane, balanced and reliable - a tough, compassionate, practical man who drew love and respect from all who met him.

GOD?

If he is neither Bad nor Mad, is he then exactly who he claimed to be - God? There is just no way that you can read the Bible and come to any other reasonable conclusion. No other recognised religious leader, such as Moses, Buddha, Mohammed or Confucius has ever claimed to be God, yet Jesus convinced those most close to Him that his claims were true. One of his twelve disciples, Thomas, met Jesus a week after the resurrection and responded by saying, “My Lord and my God”. (John 20 v. 28)

Several years later, the apostle Paul wrote to one of the next generation of Christian leaders, Titus, and referred to Jesus as “our great God and Saviour”. (Titus 2 v. 13)

Anyone who can read the books and letters collected together in what we call the New Testament and not conclude that Jesus claimed to be God - and gave very strong evidence to support this claim - and that the disciples recognised him as such, is being wilfully blind!

These claims are either the most startling news ever to break on earth, or are untrue and therefore to be denounced. Not to take any interest in this person is absurd. In the book ‘Cure for Life’, we go into much more detail looking at the evidence that supports the Christian claims, and what Jesus came from the Godhead to do.