Lunatic, Liar, or Lord
This Easter, we invite you, my friends, to ask yourself the most important question of all, who is this Man, Jesus? Who is this Man we read about in the Gospel, the Man we sing out to Alleluia, the Man who brings us to our knees?
We must ask the question because the answer changes everything. Do we believe He is a legend? A story that gives men hope? Do we believe He is a cultural ornament that adorns our year with seasons that allow for parties and presents? Is He simply a good man, a guru of proper living? Is He a lunatic who recruited a cult following? Is He a liar? — A man who claims to be God but is nothing more than a deception? Or, is it possible that He is indeed Lord, sent here by God to save us from sin and to give us the gift of eternal life?
When I first read the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Lewis pulled up a chair in front of me, looked me in the eye, and said… Let's talk. And talk we did.
In his brilliance, Lewis boils this fundamental question of who is this man down to what he calls the "trilemma." With only three possible answers, this question is the question upon which all other things rest. Is Jesus a lunatic, a liar, or Lord?
Lewis writes, "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. 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 the 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. 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. He did not intend to."
Lewis threw down, and he threw down hard. I know the beauty of the flowers that surround me this Easter Sunday to be true; I know the ham and too many sides to count on my Easter table to be true; I know the joyful magic of an Easter egg hunt for children to be true…But, did I know Jesus as Lord to be true?
Do you?
There was a point in time when I had to realize that I had one foot in this world and one on His throne. I knew — I knew — that once I allowed my heart to be swept away, my life was no longer my own, so I kept my grubby little fingers wrapped as tightly as I could around the flat ignorance of believing that Jesus was simply a really good guy. I allowed my ignorance. I allowed myself to not "go there" because when I did, I knew things would never be the same again.
On the heels of "the waiting" of Holy Saturday I think of Mary's Magnificat in the Gospel of Luke, and the response recalls her words of the prophet Isaiah. Mary knew Jesus to be Lord before she felt His first kick. And here I was before the fulfillment of every prophecy, the knowledge of Christ's life, death, and glorious resurrection, the gift of Sacred Scripture, the Church, and the Triune God who lives within me, and still in my weakness, Lent after Lent, I searched, asking myself, who is this Man who hangs from this Cross?
I was scared to know the truth.
Let us be done. Let’s never walk the middle road again, unable to fully commit to Jesus as Lord; let's be done living like Jesus was a lifestyle guru, plucking here and there from His teaching and enjoying Cadbury eggs in April. C.S. Lewis was right. Jesus, as simply a good man, isn't an option. And, if that isn't an option, then a line has to be drawn. We must either walk away completely or fall at His feet.
My dear friends, on this glorious Easter, join me at His pierced feet. No, nothing will be the same again. No, your life will no longer be yours. And no, I don't know why we waited so long.
We are praying for you, in your generosity, please keep us in yours.
Happy Easter friends!
