Seeker

Who do you think Jesus is (or was)? A prophet? A great ethical teacher? Many are attracted to him for these reasons. Those who want to say he was only a good man and great teacher must read the gospels selectively, ignoring what Jesus taught about himself and dismissing key incidents of his birth, life, death and resurrection. Some sayings of Jesus are outrageous. Much that he said and did, as well as being politically dangerous, was (if not true) religiously blasphemous. The gospel of John is full of discussions where Jesus speaks of God and himself in a way people either don't understand or get angry about. In John 8, at the end of a heated discussion between Jesus and hostile questioners, Jesus said this, "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am." Eugene Peterson praraphrases those words as, "Believe me' said Jesus, 'I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.'" That was a step too far for those who saw Jesus as a blasphemer. So...