IN SEARCH OF THE HISTORICAL JESUS
Legend, Liar, Lunatic or Lord
He was born in an obscure village.
He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty.
He then became an itinerant preacher.
He never held an office.
He never had a family.
He didn’t go to college.
He had no credentials but Himself.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race.
All the armies that have ever marched,
All the navies that ever sailed,
All the parliaments that ever sat,
And all the kings that ever reigned
Have not affected the life of man as much as that One Solitary Life.
-- Author unknownWhat do you think about Jesus? Who was He? I have asked that question to many people and in many different places. The responses I get are often varied.
In asking people their opinion of Jesus, I have occasionally been given the reply that, "I don’t like to discuss religion." However this same person is more than willing to talk about Buddha or Confucius or Mohammed or Charles Darwin. What is it about Jesus that gives such a response?
Perhaps it is because of the fantastic claims of Jesus. He made claims about Himself that went far beyond those made by other religious leaders of history.
Who is Jesus? Who is this man that so drastically changed the face of the world? There are really only four possibilities: He was either a legend, a liar, a lunatic or the Lord.
WAS JESUS MERELY A LEGEND?
Did Jesus really exist? Are there historical records that prove that He actually lived? This question can be answered with an absolute affirmative.
1. Eyewitness Accounts.
There are two primary eyewitness accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. They are both found in the Bible. They are the books of Matthew and John. Both of these men wrote of the things that they had seen and experienced.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life--
John says that the teachings about Jesus are not a fairy tale that begins, "Once upon a time." They are a living reality. He and the other disciples saw Jesus and touched Jesus and ate with Jesus and talked with Jesus.
Another eyewitness of Jesus whose writings have come down to us in the Bible is Peter.
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"--
Peter says that he was an eyewitness, not only of the life of Jesus, but also of a time when God glorified Jesus and declared Him to be the Son of God. This event took place during the ministry of Jesus. Peter and James and John had accompanied Jesus upon into a mountain. While they were there, they witnessed the unveiled glory of Jesus.
And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
Peter had already spent several years with Jesus at this time. He had recognized Jesus as the Son of God. But now as he is confronted with this vision of the glorified Christ conversing with Moses and Elijah, he says something that shows the abundance of his ignorance.
He suggests that he build three memorials. One will be to Jesus. One will be to Moses. One will be to Elijah. Do you see what Peter is thinking? He is placing Jesus up there on the same level as Moses and Elijah. But Jesus is not on the same level as Moses and Elijah. Jesus is much higher than Moses and Elijah. As if to point this out to Peter, a voice comes down from heaven.
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" (Matthew 17:5).
In essence, God says, "Peter, you shut up and listen to Jesus because you don’t know what you are talking about. HE is My beloved Son, not Moses and Elijah."
Peter never forgot that lesson. He was always to remember that Jesus was much greater than the prophets. He is the Son of God.
2. Secondary Accounts.
There were many people who had not seen Jesus personally, yet who were in a position to attest to His historicity.
For example, I have never met John F. Kennedy. Yet it would be fairly simple to attest to the fact that he actually lived and existed. I could talk to all of the people who had known him and I could collect written accounts of those who were familiar with the details of his life.
One example of such a secondary source is Luke. He alludes to his primary sources in the preface of his book.
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,
Luke cites eyewitnesses and other previous accounts as his reference material. While there are some similarities with his accounts to that of Matthew and Mark, there are also some distinct differences.
Church tradition tells us that Mark was also an author who used primary sources; his major one being the apostle Peter.
3. Secular Sources.
There are a number of contemporary secular sources that testify to the historicity of Jesus. These are not written by Christians, so they bear no mark of faith. However they do admit to his historical existence.
a. Cornelius Tacitus.
Tacitus was the governor of the Roman Province of Asia in 112 A.D. In his history, he writes of the reign of the emperor Nero and the suspicion that he had been responsible for the burning of Rome.
But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular. (Annals 15:44).
Tacitus was familiar with the name Christus (Latin for Christ) and with some of the details surrounding the death of Jesus.
b. Seutonius.
Seutonius was a court official under Roman Emperor Hadrian. He wrote this about the life of Claudius:
As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chestus, he expelled them from Rome. (Life of Claudius 25:4).
The book of Acts mentions this same expulsion of the Jews from the city of Rome (Acts 18:2). What Seutonius adds is that the source of this conflict was over the teachings of Christ.
c. Babylonian Talmud.
There are two versions of the Talmud, the collection of Jewish writings and commentaries and interpretations. One is the Jewish Talmud, the other is the Babylonian Talmud. In those writings is found this mention of Jesus:
It has been taught on the eve of the Passover they hanged Yeshua (Jesus). And an announcer went out in front of him for forty days saying, 'He is going to be stoned because He practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and plead in his behalf.' But, not having found anything in his favor, they hanged him on the eve of the Passover. (Tractate Sanhedrin 43a).
c. Josephus.
Josephus was a Jewish general who was captured by Titus and who was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. He mentions Jesus, John the Baptist and James in his writings. Although Josephus was not a believer, his book bears this testimony:
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared. (Antiquities 18:3:3).
This passage has come under the sharp attack of critics, even though it appears in every ancient copy of the writings of Josephus. The reason for the attacks is because of the way the record claims Jesus to have been the Messiah and to have risen from the dead. However Josephus often cites the claims of others as if they were factual; that is merely his style of writing and need not be taken as evidence for His faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah.
All of these accounts bear witness to the existence of Jesus. You may call into question who He was, but that He did not exist is unthinkable.
WAS JESUS A LIAR?
Is it possible that all of the things that Jesus told His disciples was a giant hoax? Is it possible that Jesus set out to deliberately deceive people? As we examine the implications of such a question, we are forces to see the great extent of such a lie.
It has been said that if Jesus is not the Lord, then He is really the devil. And yet, this is exactly what has been taught by Dr. Hugh Schonfield in his book, "The Passover Plot." He pictures Jesus as some grand schemer who planned to stage His own death on the cross and who then was revived in the tomb and, with the help of his accomplices, escaped and made his presence known to his deluded disciples.
Such a theory is completely contrary to the facts set down by the eyewitness accounts to the resurrection.
Take the case of Thomas. He was skeptical when he first heard the news of the resurrection. He knew that dead men do not usually rise from the dead and he knew that Jesus was very, very dead. He went so far as to say that he would not be convinced until he was able to see and touch the risen Lord.
And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace be with you."
This is the testimony of a hostile witness. It is the testimony of a man who had committed himself not to believe unless he was provided with adequate evidence. We see here that he was given that evidence.
John was an eyewitness to that event. He was in the room that day when the risen Lord stood in the room before them all. He saw the critic turn into a believer. He saw Doubting Thomas become Trusting Thomas. He, along with all of the other disciples, witnessed the evidence of the resurrection.
What effect did this have on their lives? These men who had so recently fled before the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus went on to stand boldly before kings and governors. Of the eleven disciples who stood in the room that day, church tradition tells us that ten of them went on to be killed for their testimony. Not one of them ever wavered from the testimony of what they had seen that day.
They were changed men. This change could not have come about from something they knew or even suspected to be a lie. The only logical explanation for this change is that they actually saw the resurrection of Jesus.
WAS JESUS A LUNATIC?
It is possible that Jesus thought that He was God, but was mistaken? We must realize that, if this is the case, then we do not have some mild delusion. Rather we have a case of someone who is so insane that he has not contact at all with reality.
C.S. Lewis stated that if Jesus really thought that He was the Messiah and the Son of God while He was not, then He is on the same level as one who says he is a poached egg.
Is there reason to doubt the sanity of Jesus? Quite to the contrary, He is the sanest man who ever lived. Aside from the question of His miracles that were witnessed by friends and foes alike, His teachings have brought peace and stability into the troubled lives of millions. Lives that were in turmoil and strife have been gloriously changed. Marriages have been healed. No other teacher on earth has spoken such words of comfort, of love or of hope.
No psychiatrist has ever brought such peace of mind. No psycho-analyst has ever brought such healing for the soul.
JESUS CHRIST THE LORD
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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. - C.S. Lewis |
He is not a legend. He is not a liar. He is not a lunatic. He is the LORD. Jesus claimed to be God. He did not leave open any other options. He did not allow anyone to accept Him as merely a good man or a prophet or a spiritual teacher. You must either reject Him or else you must worship Him. There is no middle ground.
Have you come to the place where you recognize Him as your Lord? This is the most important truth that you can know. Jesus is Lord. And because He is Lord, He is able to save all those who come to Him in faith.
That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;
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