Lord, liar or lunatic?

With Easter approaching, I've been thinking quite a bit about Jesus... specifically, how people (including myself) view him.

Is he God? Is he a prophet? Is he a good man and nothing more? Is he a criminal who deserved to die? There's quite a bit of disagreement when it comes to who he actually is, which is why I think it's important to look at who he says he is. For example, he claims to be God. He claims to be able to forgive people. He accepts worship.

Is that normal? Is that right?

If I were to claim to be God, and claim to be able to forgive people, what would the general reaction be? Would I be taken seriously or would that be more in the diretion of blasphemy and being commited to an insane asylum? Probably the latter...

All that to say... when it comes to Jesus, there are really only three options of who he could be: Lord, liar or lunatic. If his claims are false, that would mean that Jesus is either a lunatic (he made a false claim but believed it) or a liar (he deliberately and vindictively made the false claim). But if his claims are true, that would make him Lord.

There is no way he was simply a "good man." Good men don't claim to be God, don't claim to be able to forgive people's sins, etc. That's what *crazy* people with delusions of grandeur do.

Based on what he's said, I'd argue that he's either a very bad man, or God.

So... if what he says is true, we all have something to think about.

Jesus once asked Simon-Peter, one of his friends, "who do you say that I am?" This is a good question for us today as well. Who do you say that Jesus is? Do you think he was *crazy*? Was he a warm fuzzy prophet? Was he a criminal? Or could it maybe be that he really can forgive us, really can bridge the gap between us and God?

It's almost Easter. The entire Western World is on vacation. This might not be a bad time for us to think about who Jesus really is, and what that means for us.