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| JOHN'S REASON FOR WRITING |
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| more proof of Jesus' unique nature. Jesus refused to perform miracles as magic to dazzle the crowds but used them instead as object lessons to teach about himself. After feeding 5,000 people from one sack lunch, Jesus described himself as the bread of life (6:1-59). Just before restoring sight to a blind man, he called himself the light of the world (9:1-7). Nothing "just happens" in John; everything underscores the author's overall theme. Merely a Great Man? Because Jesus is so clear in describing his own nature, a statement like "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God" doesn't hold up. As C.S. Lewis has said, "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 a 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." According to John, not everyone believed Jesus was divine: "Who do you think you are?" some indignantly demanded (8:53). Doubters had him killed for making such an audacious claim. But it is hardly possible to read John without being convinced that Jesus himself claimed to be God. Life Questions: Despite what C.S. Lewis says, many people do think of Jesus as "merely a great man." How do they rationalize it? |