Now obviously Christianity, like Islam, comes in a variety of forms, but what
I'll be discussing this evening is what the writer CS Lewis called
"mere christianity," the common beliefs of all of the broad segments of Christendom,
whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. In particular, I'm going to suggest first
that Jesus of Nazareth regarded himself as the unique, divine Son of God, and
secondly, that his divine self-understanding was vindicated by his
resurrection from the dead. Let's talk first about whether Jesus of Nazareth
regarded himself as God's unique divine son or only as a prophet, as Muslims
claim. I want to examine several sayings of Jesus which are demonstrably
authentic, that is to say, actually uttered by the historical Jesus, and
which disclosed his divine self-understanding. In fact, today the majority
of New Testament scholars believe that among the historically authentic words
of Jesus are claims that reveal his divine self understanding. Jesus' radical
self-concept is disclosed, for example, in his parable of the wicked tenants of the
vineyard in Luke chapter 20. Even skeptical scholars like those in the
radical Jesus Seminar admit the authenticity of this parable. In this
parable, the owner of the vineyard sends servants to the tenants of the vineyard
to collect its fruit. The vineyard symbolizes Israel, the tenants are the
Jewish religious leaders, the servants are the prophets sent by God, and the
owner is God himself. The tenants beat and reject the owner's servants. Finally
the owner says I will send my only beloved son; they will listen to my son.
But instead, the tenants kill the son because he is the heir
to the vineyard. Now what does this parable tell us about Jesus' self-
understanding? It tells us that he thought of himself as God's special son,
distinct from all the prophets, God's final messenger, and even the heir to
Israel.This was no mere Jewish prophet. Jesus' self-concept as God's unique son
comes to explicit expression in Matthew 11:27. Jesus said "All things have been
delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no
one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal
him." Again, there's good reason to regard this as an authentic saying of the
historical Jesus. It's drawn from an old source which is shared by Matthew and
Luke which scholars call the Q document. Moreover it's unlikely that the early
church invented this saying, because it says that the Son is unknowable; no one
knows the son except the Father, but for the post-easter church we can know the
Son, so this saying is not the product of later church theology. But what does this
saying tell us about Jesus' self-concept? It tells us that he thought of himself
as the exclusive and absolute Son of God and the only revelation of God the
Father to mankind. Now think of it; if Jesus wasn't who he claimed to be, then
he was crazier than Jim Jones and David Koresh put together. Finally, I want to
consider one more saying, Jesus' saying on the date of his second coming in Mark
13:32. Jesus said "but of that day or that hour no man knows, not even the angels in
heaven nor the Son, but only the Father." This is an authentic saying of the
historical Jesus because the later church, which regarded Jesus as divine,
would never have invented a saying ascribing ignorance or limited
knowledge to Jesus. But here, Jesus says he doesn't know the date of his return.
But what do we learn from this saying? It not only reveals Jesus'
self-consciousness of being the one Son of God, but it also presents us with an
ascending scale from men, to the angels, to the Son, to the Father, a scale on
which Jesus transcends every human being and even every angelic being. This is
really incredible stuff and yet this is what the historical Jesus believed. And
this is only one facet of Jesus' self-understanding. CS Lewis was right when he
said "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 the level of a 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. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him
as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not
come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has
not left that open to us.