Jesus made some extremely strong statements about himself. C.S. Lewis, Oxford professor (and author of "The Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe" and "The Dawn Treader," etc.) said that Jesus had to be either a "liar, lord or lunatic." (If you want to read his article, you can probably find it on the internet). Lewis was friend and collegue of J.R.R. Tolkien ("Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings").
Liar--lord--lunatic--pretty strong words about Jesus. But when you look for yourself at some of the statements Jesus made about himself, you may come to one of these conclusions.
In the Gospel of John (Christian Bible--New Testament), one finds 7 very strong statements, known as the "I AM statements of Jesus. The first of these is found in John 6:35, "Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." (NIV) [If you want the whole story, read John 6:25--59]
Now some people don't accept that some of Jesus' statements about himself are really his statements. They think they are just attributions given him by the early believers and church. (And though you are reading my blog, I don't think you exist either, because I can't see you. You only exist on the internet.) But I believe they are genuinely the words of Jesus.
Before Jesus' statement, earlier in John 6, there is a miraculous story about Jesus feeding 5000 men with 5 loaves and 2 fish (pretty hard to believe that one either, but I do. I just believe God is unlimited in what He can do, whether I choose to believe it or not.)
Now Jesus' teaches about being the bread of life and leading people to never hunger or thirst again. (Men who traveled with Jesus apparently believed it, and wrote these things down about Him.)
Back in the Old Testament, when God led His people out of captivity/slavery in Egypt, He provided food for them. One of those foods was a bread-like substance, called "manna" (which actually means, "What is it?"). They had not seen it before, but God caused it to be there for them (another miraculous story--hard to believe, but I do.) Also see Jesus' statements in Matthew 5:3-10. ("Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.")
Now Jesus fed 5000 men, and then went one better. He said He Himself was the bread of life. He would provide sustenance for those who believed in Him. He would sustain them just as God had sustained the Israelites in the wilderness. And part of His sustenance was to believe in Him and live by His words. Even His words help to sustain some of us today--helping us cope with hard things in life that occur. (I am presently unemployed, experienced the death of my sister a few months back, etc.)
Now who of us--you or me, or any other human--would say that we are food for others to live by or live on? We would be looked on by others as "liar or lunatic." But Jesus made this statement about himself.
Did he really believe this? I believe he did. He believed he was sent from God to be bread--sustenance--someone life-giving-- to those who would come to him and believe.
Was it true? You have to come to your own conclusions as you read the primary texts (the original texts about this would be in the Bible--not just some preacher's commentary or some skeptic's comments about this. Those would be secondary texts.)
More of these statements of Jesus in days to come on this blog. Read it for yourself and see what you think.
Liar, Lord or Lunatic--I believe "Lord."
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