The Audacity of Jesus

The sermon I heard yesterday was on a section of Matthew 11, including verses 28 through 30:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

It was not to point of the sermon, but the pastor noted, as he read these words, how audacious such a statement would be if Jesus was, as some claim, merely a prophet of God. "The prophets never made claims like this," he said.

It reminded me of the "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord," argument C. S. Lewis made in his book, Mere Christianity:

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 a level with the man who says he is a poached egg---or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make the 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 up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

So today I skimmed through the Book of Matthew looking particularly for those words of our Lord Jesus which, were He not the Son of God, would be audacious indeed. Here are just a few of what I found in the first twelve chapters:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you..." Matthew 5:21 This verse is just one example of several of a similar form in which Jesus quotes the official teachers of Israel, and then contradicts them with His own words, which, of course, implied that His authority exceeded theirs.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'  Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. Matthew 7: 21-27

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." Matthew 9:2

"Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town..." Matthew  10:15 The Old Testament prophets began their prophecies with the words, "Thus says the Lord..." This verse is just one of many in which Jesus precedes his prophecies with the words, "Truly, I say to you..." He never says, "Thus says the Lord." See also Matthew 11:20-24

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:33-32

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10: 37-39

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here." Matthew 12:8-42 

Comments

[Hal]

What a wonderful post, Dory. It's great reminder of Christ's sovereignty in our lives.

Matthew 12:8-42 has always been one of my favorite encounters between Christ and the Pharisees. Of course it's always saddened me too, because many of them appear to have been so blinded to the truth even when it was standing before them.

[JD Wetterling]

Dory, this is another powerful apology. If you put this in tract form I will pass it out, too, along with your "Are You Bad Enough to Be a Christian." God bless you.

[Catez]

Good post Dory. I've known the "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" apologetic but it is excellent to look at examples. I think I might do this myself - it's a good exercise.

[anneberit]

I guess you could have wroten even longer if you showed all of the places in the Bible where Jesus tells us that he is much more than a profet -> that is in fact the Good News of the Gospel! The one we shouth out to anyone who will hear :)

But the main thing is: do they believe that the Bible tells the truth??? For if they do - there is no way that they can settle for the simple: he's a good moral teacher. He is so much more!

God Bless!

[Chad]

That's a really good post, Dory. I've always loved this passage from Mere Christianity, and your post provides some real concrete examples to back it up.

I think it's a great way to make the fence-sitters take a stand. Enough talk of the "historical Jesus" who was a "great moral teacher" but not the son of God. It's pretty much an incoherent argument as this post points out...