Jesus a lunatic???

Jesus a Lunatic???
Matthews Gospel records,
“At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.  
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” 
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  
He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.  
Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?  
I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.  
If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 
Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,  and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?  
How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.  
But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. 
                                                                                                     Matthew 12:1-14.
Here the Pharisees who were so legalistic accuse Jesus and his disciples of working on the Sabbath. They interpreted what Jesus and His disciples were doing as harvesting the wheat, threshing it and preparing it as food.
These men were so afraid of upsetting God that they held to a very strict interpretation of the law. So strict it placed heavy burdens on people.
They didn’t even like the fact that Jesus healed a man, did a good work on the Sabbath.
They especially didn’t like the fact that he called himself Lord of the Sabbath. Equating himself with God.
Jesus knew this. He also knew that to equate himself with God was punishable by death.
Jesus could have avoided controversy by simply not saying who he was. By not claiming to be the Son of God. But he didn’t.
C. S. Lewis points out,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone 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.” 
                                                                                    C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The disciples of Jesus, and close to three billion Christians around the world today believe Jesus to be the Son of God the Saviour of mankind. Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate, God in the flesh.
Now either we Christians are right or we have been believing what is perhaps the most monumental lie in human history.
John’s Gospel records Jesus asking a question to Martha that we all must answer,
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes Lord” she told Him, “I believe you are the Christ the Son of God, who was to come into the world, 
John 11:25,26.
Question: Who do you think Jesus really is?
Please think about it.

Pilate's Dilemma

Pilate’s dilemma
The Gospel of John records,
“The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” 
  When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.  
“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” 
Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” 
From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
                                                                                                                 John 19:7-12.
In the above quote from the gospel of John we see the Roman governor Pilate has a dilemma.
The Jewish religious leaders of the day bring Jesus before him saying Jesus claims to be the Son of God. Therfore under Jewish law he must die.
As the Jews under Roman rule did not have the power of putting someone to death they called on Pilate to do so.
Judging by what John says Pilate seems to believe Jesus might be the son of God. John records,
“When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.”  
“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” 
Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”
Although we know Pilate did try to release Jesus he eventually bowed to the political pressure. Perhaps fearing a riot and definitely not wanting to have his loyalty to Cesar questioned  he gave into the enemies of Jesus and had him put to death.
Jesus knew full well that claiming to be the Son of God was claiming to be equal to God an act punishable by death. Yet Jesus never wavered from his claim.
Earlier in Johns Gospel John records,
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  
I and the Father are one.” 
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 
                                                                                                          John 10:24-32 
In John 11 Jesus when speaking to Martha says,
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes Lord” she told Him, “I believe you are the Christ the Son of God, who was to come into the world, 
John 11:25,26.
C. S. Lewis put it this way,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone 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.” 
                                                                                 C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
Jesus was no lunatic. Jesus was fully aware as to who He was and why He came to earth. He came to earth to die for the sins of each and every man. To quote Lewis again,
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.”
                                     C.S. Lewis.
Jesus gives each person a choice. Jesus said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. 
                                                                                                                                 John 3:16-18.
The choice is yours.
Please think about it.