Crazy or King

While reading, King’s Cross:The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, by Tim Keller, a quote in chapter 4 particularly stood out to me. It merits being carefully thought through.

Many people say, “Sure, I believe that Jesus is a great teacher, but I can’t believe what they say about him being God.” That creates a problem, because his teaching is based on his identity claim … Here is how historian N.T Wright puts it: “How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that the fire has become flesh, that life itself became life and walked in our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality of the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful playacting. Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between.” He’s right. I believe you’ll see that in the end you can’t simply like anybody who makes claims like those of Jesus. Either he’s a wicked liar of crazy person and you should have nothing to do with him, or he is who he says he is and your whole life has to revolve around him and you have to throw everything at his feet and say, “Command me.” Or do you live in that misty “world in between” that Wright says no one can live in with integrity? Do you pray Jesus when you’re in trouble, and otherwise mostly ignore him because you get busy? Either Jesus can’t hear you because he’s not who he says he is – or if he is who he says he is, he must become the still point of your turning world, the center around which your entire life revolves.

That is pretty loaded! Either Jesus was a crazy person and we should ignore him or he is King and we need to follow him! We can’t try to make him into something in between. What do you think?