The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, August 20th: Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58)

THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS’ IDENTITY

In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven….Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Not surprisingly, Jesus’ statements rubbed some people the wrong way. Scripture tells us that many people in the crowd “quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’”

This week’s gospel reading continues on where last week’s gospel reading left off, from John chapter 6. Last week the people in the crowd said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Once again, the key issue is the identity of Jesus. When Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29), He was asking them the most important question in the world. After all, Scripture makes it clear that the difference between salvation and damnation, the difference between Heaven and Hell, is whether or not a person puts his or her faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord and Son of the living God.

This most important question in the world—the identity of Jesus—is the question we must answer. And the way we answer will impact our lives…for all eternity.

This issue came to mind recently when I read a newspaper story about the decline of Christianity, and especially the Catholic Church, in western Europe. The story quoted a young man in Ireland, 24-year-old Frank Stafford (I mention him by name so you can pray for him).

Frank, who distrusts all organized religions, still takes advantage of certain aspects of the Catholic faith tradition in which he was raised. “I can still go to Mass and take out what I want,” he explained. “It still has meaning. I believe in God, Jesus and Mary. But not Jesus the son of God….I see him as a holy man. A prophet.”

Like many people these days, young Frank Stafford has fallen for the old “good and wise but thoroughly human” definition of Jesus’ identity. This is not only an incorrect definition and a one-way-ticket-to-Hell definition of Jesus’ identity, it is also an illogical, irrational definition.

Based on the things Jesus said about Himself, He was either a liar or a lunatic or the Lord. There is no in between. There is no way a mere mortal could be considered good and wise—a holy man or a prophet—if he said the things Jesus said.

I addressed this issue in my book, Boomer Trek: One Baby Boomer’s Surprising Journey From Secular Humanism to Faith in God. This is what I wrote in chapter 13: 

The identity of Jesus Christ is a black and white, yes or no, issue. He was either the son of the living God, or he was a very defective person. There is no happy medium; there is no middle ground. Many people take the position that he was a good and wise human teacher, but not divine. But Jesus went to great lengths to make sure no one would draw that conclusion. He left us only two choices as to his identity: the Lord of life and the savior of the world, or a crackpot.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus made a lot of startling claims about himself:
 

·           He considered himself to be morally perfect. “I have not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it” (Matt 5:17). “Your sins are forgiven” (Matt 9:2).
 

·           He seated all authority in himself. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18).
 

·           He spoke of the eternal world as though he had been there personally. “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58).
 

·           He placed himself at the center of the religious universe. “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me!” (John 14:6).
 

·           He viewed his death as somehow necessary for the salvation of all mankind. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
 

·           He claimed that he would be raised to life three days after his death. “The Son of Man will be betrayed…and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life” (Matt 20:18-19).

Are these the statements of a good and wise human teacher? Of course not. If Jesus was a mere mortal and not divine, these claims make it clear that he was either quite deluded about his identity, or even worse, a cruel and calculating deceiver. He could only have been a liar, or a lunatic, or the Lord. There is no middle ground. He could not have been a good and wise human teacher.

Trust me, even though I wrote that in a book, that’s not my own original insight. I built upon the analyses of folks far wiser than me. One example is C.S. Lewis, who discussed this very idea in his book Mere Christianity in the early 1940s. Lewis wrote:

I am trying here to prevent anyone from 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.

The identity of Jesus Christ is the key to Christianity. If He was merely human, albeit a charismatic and smooth-talking human, then Christianity is nothing more than one of many self-help spiritual philosophies floating around these days. In addition, the entire 2,000-year history of Christian influence throughout the world has been based on a lie.

However, if we believe that Jesus really is who He said He is, and if we put our faith in Him as Lord, as Savior, as God Incarnate—then we will receive His gift of eternal life.

It is our responsibility to know this truth about Jesus’ identity, to embrace it, and to be prepared to explain to the countless Frank Staffords of the world that their conclusion about Jesus is flawed. And as a result of this flawed conclusion, their eternal souls are in jeopardy.

Please pray that those who do not know the real identity of Jesus would come to understand and believe—and, most important of all, to spend eternity in Heaven.

©2006