The Incomparable Christ
Sermon
SERMONS ON THE GOSPEL READINGS
Series I, Cycle A
While sightseeing in Boston last fall, I entered the narthex of a church building. Much to my surprise I discovered a gallery of marble busts, images of some of history's great leaders. Socrates and Aristotle were there. So was Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, Shakespeare, Confucius, Moses, Mohammed, and Christ. I personally found the display troubling, mainly because Jesus was just one of the crowd. And that just isn't historically or theologically accurate! For you see, Christ is so unique as to be incomparable!
In the text, Jesus asked the question, "Who do you say that I am?" Was he just another on of the crowd? Did his disciples have any idea of who Christ was? Peter, of course, responded, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." While it's pretty clear that Peter did not fully understand all that meant, he was absolutely right. Jesus is the Christ. There is no one like him. There is no one else who is the Son of the Living God. Peter was right and Jesus blesses Peter and makes a prophetic pronouncement over him. Jesus still blesses those who come to the realization that Jesus is the Christ.
So, to be accurate, the narthex should be redesigned so that Christ is lifted up on a level by himself, with the remainder of history's host far below. Let's take a look at the record and see why this is so.
God's Action
The major religions of the world agree on two facts: 1) The human race once had a close relationship with God; 2) Somehow we lost it. Where religions disagree is on how that relationship is restored. This is where religions divide into two main categories - active religion and reactive religions.
An active religion teaches that a person must do something to restore his relationship with God. Judaism warns we must obey the law. Hinduism persuades us to meditate, diet, and squelch passions. Islam bids us give alms to the poor, pray five times daily, and fight Allah's holy wars. "Do something!" religion bids. "Take the initiative. Reach out!"
The other sort of religion is "reactive," and Christianity is its only representative. This sort of faith says there is nothing I can do to restore my relationship with God. Only God himself is capable of doing such. In Jesus Christ, God has acted decisively, capably, once and for all. All I can do is react, and repentance and faith are the proper response.
See this in Genesis 1--3. Adam and Eve turn from God to Satan and sin. Then they know fear and shame and hide themselves. But God acts. In the cool of the evening God walks in their garden. "Where are you?" he queries. Finding them, he begins to unfold his divine redeeming strategy. At God's initiative an animal is slain, the first blood sacrifice, and the promise of a savior is prophesied - one who would crush Satan's head.
Confucius, Mohammed, and Buddha are but the initiative of man. The uniqueness of Christ is that he is the initiative of God.
Prophecy
Yet another distinctive of Jesus Christ is that his life and ministry were predicted long before he was born. The Old Testament was written over a 1,500--year period. In its 39 books a savior is predicted over 300 times.
These prophecies are quite specific. The Savior sent from God would have a virgin birth and know poverty. He'd be born in Beth--lehem, be called a Nazarene, and yet God would call him out of Egypt. He'd come from the tribe of Judah, the house of David. His would be a ministry of miracles, yet he'd be rejected by his own people, be a suffering servant, and die like a sacrificial lamb, yet not one of his bones would be broken.
There were over 300 such prophecies. And Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of them literally. So, indeed, he is the one promised of old - Jesus, the Christ.
"Jesus" is the Greek version of the Hebrew "Joshua." The name means "savior" or "health--giver." "Christ" is Greek for "the anointed one of God." So, his very name means, "The anointed one of God to bring health."
His Teachings
When one turns from the initiative of God and prophecy to Christ's teachings, a further distinctive is found. Other religious leaders said, "I have taught you the truth." Jesus said, "I am the truth."
There are those who like to say that Jesus Christ was a great teacher, but he was not God. I hasten to point out that Christ has not left that option open to us. A man who said the sort of things Christ said about himself is either absolutely correct or he is a liar or a lunatic.
"If you've seen me you've seen the Father." "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me." "I am the door." "Before Abraham was, I Am." "I will come again and receive you to myself." Such is the boldness of Christ that either he is right or wrong. Either he is telling us the truth or he is lying or deluded.
Yet - amazing thing - Jesus taught with such authority, his lifestyle never contradicted his words. Merciful love, sterling character, and extraordinary miracles accompanied his utterances.
The Witness Of History
In 1896, after fifteen centuries, Athens renewed the Olympic games, thus fulfilling the dream of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France. You can imagine how proud the Greeks were to host the first modern Olympics. You can also imagine how disappointed they were at their athletes' lack of success in event after event.
The last competition was the marathon. Greece's entrant was named Louis, a shepherd without competitive background. He'd trained alone in the hills near his flock. When the race started, Louis was far back in the pack of marathoners. But as the miles passed he moved up steadily. One by one the leaders began to falter. The Frenchman fell in agony. The hero from the United States had to quit the race. Soon, word reached the stadium that a lone runner was approaching the arena, and the emblem of Greece was on his chest! As the excitement grew, Prince George of Greece hurried to the stadium entrance where he met Louis and ran with him to the finish line.
In this sports tale we have something of the history of the human race. Most historical figures make their impact, achieve a measure of fame, books are written about them, but as the years go by they begin to fade. Less and less is written or spoken of their lives until they rest in relative obscurity.
With Jesus Christ, however, one finds quite an opposite phenomena! Christ started from way back in the pack. He was born in relative obscurity, never had many followers, commanded no army, erected no edifices, wrote no books. He died young, was buried in a borrowed grave, and you'd think he'd be quickly forgotten.
But, no! His reputation has grown so that today he is worshiped on every continent, has more followers than ever before, sixteen times has his picture been on the cover of Time magazine, and his sayings have been translated into more than 200 languages.
Consider: Socrates taught for forty years, Plato for fifty, and Aristotle, forty. Jesus Christ only taught for three years. Yet which has influenced the world more? One hundred thirty years of classical thought or three years of Christ's?
In the Library of Congress there are 1,172 reference books on William Shakespeare, 1,752 on George Washington, 2,319 on Abe Lincoln, and 5,152 on Jesus Christ. Perhaps H. G. Wells best summed up the runaway difference in interest. "Christ," he wrote, "is the most unique person of history. No man can write a history of the human race without giving first and foremost place to the penniless teacher of Nazareth."
From poverty and obscurity to teacher to death on the cross, to ascended Lord - Jesus Christ is the growing figure of history. Unique - while all others decrease, he increases - until, as the Bible predicts, "To him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."
Human Unity
Yet another rich distinctive of Christ is the social unity he brings. The world to which Jesus Christ came was a divided world - rich against poor, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, male and female, Greek and barbarian. Other religious leaders entered this arena and compounded the problem with strict caste systems, classes of desirables and undesirables, infidels and faithfuls.
Jesus Christ, however, was the only religious leader tall enough to see over all the fences we have erected to divide ourselves. At his birth, wise men and shepherds, animals, the rich and poor, male and female, king, peasant, young, old, Jew and Gentile came and worshiped as one.
As an adult, Jesus continued to draw all humanity unto himself - rich Lazarus, a poor widow of Nain, harlots, Pharisees, soldiers, scholars, priests, and businessmen. It is written of Jesus in Ephesians, "He has broken down the dividing walls of hostility and made us both one." Galatians announces, "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, but one new man in Christ." Indeed, no one has done more to unite the infirm, the orphan, the student, the poor, the rich, and the various races than Christ himself!
Salvation Of The Whole Person
Another uniqueness of Jesus is his emphasis on the well--being of the whole person.
If I become a Muslim, my religion promises to make me right with Allah, god. But it offers me no relationship with myself or creation. Arabs raped Palestine ecologically, and their religious leaders make them into car bombs constantly.
If I become a pantheist, I get right with nature but ignore my relations with God and other people.
If I become a Hindu, through diet and meditation, I achieve a relationship with myself, but have nothing with God, people, or creation.
In Christ, however, I am promised a relationship that is based on love that intellectually, emotionally, and willfully includes God, self, neighbor, and creation. This is the exceeding breadth of the great commandment of Christ - to love God and my neighbor as myself. See in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 God's interest in the whole person: "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
No one cares for all that I am and for all my basic relationships like Jesus Christ!
Philosophical Epistemology
Epistemology is the philosophy of knowing. It asks the question, "How do I know something is true?" And basically, it works out to four means:
1. Experience: "I know fire burns because I touched it."
2. Reason: "I know 2+2=4 because it is reasonable."
3. Authority: "I know man walked on the moon because NBC News told me so."
4. Revelation: "I know there is a God because my conscience bears witness."
The interesting thing about world religions is that they all appeal to epistemological verification in at least one of these four areas and to varying levels of quality. Jesus Christ, however, can be verified in all four areas and to the highest levels of quality.
As James 3:17 teaches, "The wisdom from above (Christ) is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason...."
Consider:
1. Experience: All varieties of people on every continent have experienced Jesus Christ for 2,000 years.
2. Reason: Jesus and his Bible are the most scrutinized of all. There has been more debate, writing, thinking, and teaching about him than any other. Christian apologetics is well documented. And the most intelligent of history have believed in him - T. S. Eliot, Shakespeare, Rem--brandt, Handel, Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, and the like.
3. Conscience, revelation: I read this word and I am strangely calmed. We keep coming back to him, rediscovering him. He's the man we cannot avoid, the one revealed from heaven.
4. Authority: Here there is the Bible, the church, Christian universities, families - human authority and beyond - all chorusing, "Jesus is truth!"
Oswald Spangler called Jesus "an incomparable figure." Ibsen said he is "the greatest rebel who ever lived." Will Durant called him "God's highest incarnation." Charles Lamb observed, "If all the illustrious men of history were gathered together and Shake--speare should enter their presence, they would arise to do him honor; but if Jesus Christ should come in they would all fall down and worship him."
It was Napoleon who wrote of Christ: "I know men, and I tell you, Jesus was more than a man. Comparison is impossible between him and any other being who ever lived because he was the Son of God."
Incarnation
The Bible says Jesus is "the word" that "became flesh and dwelt among us."
I asked a young Oriental student at the university why he had become a Christian. "I was in a deep pit," he testified. "I wanted out but was in too deep and was entirely too weak to climb out. Confucius looked in and said, 'You are in a deep pit. You should have been more careful. If you ever get out, come and see me and I will teach you wisdom.' Next Buddha looked in on me. He said, 'Quit struggling, my son. There is peace in the pit. Only meditate on my words.' Next Moses visited. He gave me ten rules and told me to build my life around them. There followed, then, the man Jesus Christ. He looked down into the pit, saw me and didn't say a word. He simply climbed down into the pit, embraced me and carried me out on his back. Now, every day he walks with me teaching me how to love like him."
Such is the incarnational love of Jesus. He comes among us, feeds us, heals us, numbers the hairs of our head, calls us by name, dies in our place, and bids us, "Cast all your cares upon me because I care about you."
His Miracles
Yet a final distinctive of Jesus Christ is his miracles.
What did he do? What didn't he do! He turned water into wine, healed the lame, the blind, and the deaf. Calmed a storm, multiplied a little food to feed 5,000, raised the dead, even resurrected himself from death!
Look at it this way. If you were walking down the road in life, and the road came to a fork and you didn't know which way to go, you'd ask directions. Let's say four people are there, three dead and one alive; who will you ask?
Buddha, Mohammed, and Moses are dead, but Jesus Christ is alive. He is unique among religious leaders of the world in that he alone has no tomb. He alone is alive, eternal, and reigning!
Conclusion
Almost 2,000 years ago a man was born contrary to the laws of nature. This person lived in poverty, was reared in obscurity. Never did he travel extensively. Only one or twice did he cross the boundary of Israel. He possessed neither wealth nor influence. His family had little education. In infancy, he startled a monarch. In childhood, he puzzled scholars. In adulthood, he ruled nature walking upon the sea and hushing a storm.
He healed the multitudes of blind, lame, mute, possessed, and he did it without medicine and made no charge for his services. He never wrote anything down, and yet the libraries of the world bulge with the volumes written about him. He never wrote a song or painted a picture or molded clay and yet he has furnished the theme for more art than all others combined.
He never practiced medicine and yet he has healed more broken spirits and hearts than modern medicine far and near. He never started a university, yet all the colleges of the world cannot boast of having as many disciples.
He never commanded an army, fired a gun, drafted a soldier, or ran for political office. Yet no officer or king ever had more volunteers who have, under his orders, marched into every valley of human need to begin orphanages, schools, hospitals, to right wrongs, and institute justice.
Every Lord's Day, the wheels of commerce cease their churning and multitudes assemble in churches worldwide to worship him as Savior and Lord.
The names of athletes, senators, artists, emperors, and soldiers have come and gone; but the name of this person grows with time. Though nearly 2,000 years from his birth, yet he still lives! Herod could not kill him. Satan could not seduce him. Death could not obliterate him. The grave could not hold him.
He stands forth upon the earth as God Incarnate, the King of glory, Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord.
Proclaimed by prophets, heralded by angels, worshiped by saints, feared by devils, he asks, "Who do you say that I am?"
Stephen M. Crotts
In the text, Jesus asked the question, "Who do you say that I am?" Was he just another on of the crowd? Did his disciples have any idea of who Christ was? Peter, of course, responded, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." While it's pretty clear that Peter did not fully understand all that meant, he was absolutely right. Jesus is the Christ. There is no one like him. There is no one else who is the Son of the Living God. Peter was right and Jesus blesses Peter and makes a prophetic pronouncement over him. Jesus still blesses those who come to the realization that Jesus is the Christ.
So, to be accurate, the narthex should be redesigned so that Christ is lifted up on a level by himself, with the remainder of history's host far below. Let's take a look at the record and see why this is so.
God's Action
The major religions of the world agree on two facts: 1) The human race once had a close relationship with God; 2) Somehow we lost it. Where religions disagree is on how that relationship is restored. This is where religions divide into two main categories - active religion and reactive religions.
An active religion teaches that a person must do something to restore his relationship with God. Judaism warns we must obey the law. Hinduism persuades us to meditate, diet, and squelch passions. Islam bids us give alms to the poor, pray five times daily, and fight Allah's holy wars. "Do something!" religion bids. "Take the initiative. Reach out!"
The other sort of religion is "reactive," and Christianity is its only representative. This sort of faith says there is nothing I can do to restore my relationship with God. Only God himself is capable of doing such. In Jesus Christ, God has acted decisively, capably, once and for all. All I can do is react, and repentance and faith are the proper response.
See this in Genesis 1--3. Adam and Eve turn from God to Satan and sin. Then they know fear and shame and hide themselves. But God acts. In the cool of the evening God walks in their garden. "Where are you?" he queries. Finding them, he begins to unfold his divine redeeming strategy. At God's initiative an animal is slain, the first blood sacrifice, and the promise of a savior is prophesied - one who would crush Satan's head.
Confucius, Mohammed, and Buddha are but the initiative of man. The uniqueness of Christ is that he is the initiative of God.
Prophecy
Yet another distinctive of Jesus Christ is that his life and ministry were predicted long before he was born. The Old Testament was written over a 1,500--year period. In its 39 books a savior is predicted over 300 times.
These prophecies are quite specific. The Savior sent from God would have a virgin birth and know poverty. He'd be born in Beth--lehem, be called a Nazarene, and yet God would call him out of Egypt. He'd come from the tribe of Judah, the house of David. His would be a ministry of miracles, yet he'd be rejected by his own people, be a suffering servant, and die like a sacrificial lamb, yet not one of his bones would be broken.
There were over 300 such prophecies. And Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of them literally. So, indeed, he is the one promised of old - Jesus, the Christ.
"Jesus" is the Greek version of the Hebrew "Joshua." The name means "savior" or "health--giver." "Christ" is Greek for "the anointed one of God." So, his very name means, "The anointed one of God to bring health."
His Teachings
When one turns from the initiative of God and prophecy to Christ's teachings, a further distinctive is found. Other religious leaders said, "I have taught you the truth." Jesus said, "I am the truth."
There are those who like to say that Jesus Christ was a great teacher, but he was not God. I hasten to point out that Christ has not left that option open to us. A man who said the sort of things Christ said about himself is either absolutely correct or he is a liar or a lunatic.
"If you've seen me you've seen the Father." "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me." "I am the door." "Before Abraham was, I Am." "I will come again and receive you to myself." Such is the boldness of Christ that either he is right or wrong. Either he is telling us the truth or he is lying or deluded.
Yet - amazing thing - Jesus taught with such authority, his lifestyle never contradicted his words. Merciful love, sterling character, and extraordinary miracles accompanied his utterances.
The Witness Of History
In 1896, after fifteen centuries, Athens renewed the Olympic games, thus fulfilling the dream of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France. You can imagine how proud the Greeks were to host the first modern Olympics. You can also imagine how disappointed they were at their athletes' lack of success in event after event.
The last competition was the marathon. Greece's entrant was named Louis, a shepherd without competitive background. He'd trained alone in the hills near his flock. When the race started, Louis was far back in the pack of marathoners. But as the miles passed he moved up steadily. One by one the leaders began to falter. The Frenchman fell in agony. The hero from the United States had to quit the race. Soon, word reached the stadium that a lone runner was approaching the arena, and the emblem of Greece was on his chest! As the excitement grew, Prince George of Greece hurried to the stadium entrance where he met Louis and ran with him to the finish line.
In this sports tale we have something of the history of the human race. Most historical figures make their impact, achieve a measure of fame, books are written about them, but as the years go by they begin to fade. Less and less is written or spoken of their lives until they rest in relative obscurity.
With Jesus Christ, however, one finds quite an opposite phenomena! Christ started from way back in the pack. He was born in relative obscurity, never had many followers, commanded no army, erected no edifices, wrote no books. He died young, was buried in a borrowed grave, and you'd think he'd be quickly forgotten.
But, no! His reputation has grown so that today he is worshiped on every continent, has more followers than ever before, sixteen times has his picture been on the cover of Time magazine, and his sayings have been translated into more than 200 languages.
Consider: Socrates taught for forty years, Plato for fifty, and Aristotle, forty. Jesus Christ only taught for three years. Yet which has influenced the world more? One hundred thirty years of classical thought or three years of Christ's?
In the Library of Congress there are 1,172 reference books on William Shakespeare, 1,752 on George Washington, 2,319 on Abe Lincoln, and 5,152 on Jesus Christ. Perhaps H. G. Wells best summed up the runaway difference in interest. "Christ," he wrote, "is the most unique person of history. No man can write a history of the human race without giving first and foremost place to the penniless teacher of Nazareth."
From poverty and obscurity to teacher to death on the cross, to ascended Lord - Jesus Christ is the growing figure of history. Unique - while all others decrease, he increases - until, as the Bible predicts, "To him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."
Human Unity
Yet another rich distinctive of Christ is the social unity he brings. The world to which Jesus Christ came was a divided world - rich against poor, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, male and female, Greek and barbarian. Other religious leaders entered this arena and compounded the problem with strict caste systems, classes of desirables and undesirables, infidels and faithfuls.
Jesus Christ, however, was the only religious leader tall enough to see over all the fences we have erected to divide ourselves. At his birth, wise men and shepherds, animals, the rich and poor, male and female, king, peasant, young, old, Jew and Gentile came and worshiped as one.
As an adult, Jesus continued to draw all humanity unto himself - rich Lazarus, a poor widow of Nain, harlots, Pharisees, soldiers, scholars, priests, and businessmen. It is written of Jesus in Ephesians, "He has broken down the dividing walls of hostility and made us both one." Galatians announces, "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, but one new man in Christ." Indeed, no one has done more to unite the infirm, the orphan, the student, the poor, the rich, and the various races than Christ himself!
Salvation Of The Whole Person
Another uniqueness of Jesus is his emphasis on the well--being of the whole person.
If I become a Muslim, my religion promises to make me right with Allah, god. But it offers me no relationship with myself or creation. Arabs raped Palestine ecologically, and their religious leaders make them into car bombs constantly.
If I become a pantheist, I get right with nature but ignore my relations with God and other people.
If I become a Hindu, through diet and meditation, I achieve a relationship with myself, but have nothing with God, people, or creation.
In Christ, however, I am promised a relationship that is based on love that intellectually, emotionally, and willfully includes God, self, neighbor, and creation. This is the exceeding breadth of the great commandment of Christ - to love God and my neighbor as myself. See in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 God's interest in the whole person: "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
No one cares for all that I am and for all my basic relationships like Jesus Christ!
Philosophical Epistemology
Epistemology is the philosophy of knowing. It asks the question, "How do I know something is true?" And basically, it works out to four means:
1. Experience: "I know fire burns because I touched it."
2. Reason: "I know 2+2=4 because it is reasonable."
3. Authority: "I know man walked on the moon because NBC News told me so."
4. Revelation: "I know there is a God because my conscience bears witness."
The interesting thing about world religions is that they all appeal to epistemological verification in at least one of these four areas and to varying levels of quality. Jesus Christ, however, can be verified in all four areas and to the highest levels of quality.
As James 3:17 teaches, "The wisdom from above (Christ) is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason...."
Consider:
1. Experience: All varieties of people on every continent have experienced Jesus Christ for 2,000 years.
2. Reason: Jesus and his Bible are the most scrutinized of all. There has been more debate, writing, thinking, and teaching about him than any other. Christian apologetics is well documented. And the most intelligent of history have believed in him - T. S. Eliot, Shakespeare, Rem--brandt, Handel, Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, and the like.
3. Conscience, revelation: I read this word and I am strangely calmed. We keep coming back to him, rediscovering him. He's the man we cannot avoid, the one revealed from heaven.
4. Authority: Here there is the Bible, the church, Christian universities, families - human authority and beyond - all chorusing, "Jesus is truth!"
Oswald Spangler called Jesus "an incomparable figure." Ibsen said he is "the greatest rebel who ever lived." Will Durant called him "God's highest incarnation." Charles Lamb observed, "If all the illustrious men of history were gathered together and Shake--speare should enter their presence, they would arise to do him honor; but if Jesus Christ should come in they would all fall down and worship him."
It was Napoleon who wrote of Christ: "I know men, and I tell you, Jesus was more than a man. Comparison is impossible between him and any other being who ever lived because he was the Son of God."
Incarnation
The Bible says Jesus is "the word" that "became flesh and dwelt among us."
I asked a young Oriental student at the university why he had become a Christian. "I was in a deep pit," he testified. "I wanted out but was in too deep and was entirely too weak to climb out. Confucius looked in and said, 'You are in a deep pit. You should have been more careful. If you ever get out, come and see me and I will teach you wisdom.' Next Buddha looked in on me. He said, 'Quit struggling, my son. There is peace in the pit. Only meditate on my words.' Next Moses visited. He gave me ten rules and told me to build my life around them. There followed, then, the man Jesus Christ. He looked down into the pit, saw me and didn't say a word. He simply climbed down into the pit, embraced me and carried me out on his back. Now, every day he walks with me teaching me how to love like him."
Such is the incarnational love of Jesus. He comes among us, feeds us, heals us, numbers the hairs of our head, calls us by name, dies in our place, and bids us, "Cast all your cares upon me because I care about you."
His Miracles
Yet a final distinctive of Jesus Christ is his miracles.
What did he do? What didn't he do! He turned water into wine, healed the lame, the blind, and the deaf. Calmed a storm, multiplied a little food to feed 5,000, raised the dead, even resurrected himself from death!
Look at it this way. If you were walking down the road in life, and the road came to a fork and you didn't know which way to go, you'd ask directions. Let's say four people are there, three dead and one alive; who will you ask?
Buddha, Mohammed, and Moses are dead, but Jesus Christ is alive. He is unique among religious leaders of the world in that he alone has no tomb. He alone is alive, eternal, and reigning!
Conclusion
Almost 2,000 years ago a man was born contrary to the laws of nature. This person lived in poverty, was reared in obscurity. Never did he travel extensively. Only one or twice did he cross the boundary of Israel. He possessed neither wealth nor influence. His family had little education. In infancy, he startled a monarch. In childhood, he puzzled scholars. In adulthood, he ruled nature walking upon the sea and hushing a storm.
He healed the multitudes of blind, lame, mute, possessed, and he did it without medicine and made no charge for his services. He never wrote anything down, and yet the libraries of the world bulge with the volumes written about him. He never wrote a song or painted a picture or molded clay and yet he has furnished the theme for more art than all others combined.
He never practiced medicine and yet he has healed more broken spirits and hearts than modern medicine far and near. He never started a university, yet all the colleges of the world cannot boast of having as many disciples.
He never commanded an army, fired a gun, drafted a soldier, or ran for political office. Yet no officer or king ever had more volunteers who have, under his orders, marched into every valley of human need to begin orphanages, schools, hospitals, to right wrongs, and institute justice.
Every Lord's Day, the wheels of commerce cease their churning and multitudes assemble in churches worldwide to worship him as Savior and Lord.
The names of athletes, senators, artists, emperors, and soldiers have come and gone; but the name of this person grows with time. Though nearly 2,000 years from his birth, yet he still lives! Herod could not kill him. Satan could not seduce him. Death could not obliterate him. The grave could not hold him.
He stands forth upon the earth as God Incarnate, the King of glory, Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord.
Proclaimed by prophets, heralded by angels, worshiped by saints, feared by devils, he asks, "Who do you say that I am?"
Stephen M. Crotts
