Theology Sunday

Last week Bono and I addressed a problem that has been presenting itself since Jesus walked the earth. People did not believe that Jesus was who he said he was. Such as when Jesus (referring to himself) said “He who has seen Me has seen The Father”, and when He also said “Before Abraham was “I AM”.

The Father Jesus is referring to is course “Our Father in Heaven" – God. He told the people if you have seen Jesus then you have seen God. "I AM who I AM" was what the Lord God told Moses when Moses asked him for his name. Jesus is not bad at grammar when he said that “Before Abraham was I AM” the people around him knew exactly what he was referring to – He was aligning himself with the God that led the nation out of slavery in Egypt and more so He called himself the God of Abraham, so they promptly tried to stone him for blasphemy. Jesus has been saying ‘I Am God incarnate’ for 2000 years now, and people have been saying back ‘no you aren’t’ or to be more accurate ‘we don’t want you to be.’

People have been making claims on all sorts of things for a long time now. Claims that many will call ludicrous – but there are people who believe them. Most claims through are relatively harmless.... but then... Charles Manson who Bono mentioned before as a lunatic claimed that Armageddon was going to come as a Race war as the black man (sic) would do battle against white people. As such he got his followers to murder some famous people in Hollywood who he said supported the blacks. David Koresh who also claimed to be the messiah brought his followers into a violent confrontation with the FBI in Waco Texas. From these and other examples in history we see that some claims are not harmless.

Jesus made the claim “I am the Lord” and was killed for it. The final straw for the leaders of his day to want him crucified was when Jesus was asked “are you the son of God?” and Jesus replied “You are right in saying I am”. (There is that I AM thing again). This got Jesus killed and Christians for the last 2000 years have been killed for saying Jesus was telling the truth. Today we have to make the choice. Either he was telling the truth or he is a lunatic.

Unlike all of the other claims down through the ages Jesus has something major to back up his claims of divinity – proof. He did miracles great and small while alive, but the proof beyond all proof – an undeniable fact of history, Jesus died upon the cross and three days later rose from the dead – resurrected.