Since coming to Amsterdam, I believe I have lost some of my naivety. In regards to how I view others, the world I live in, and also how I think of my faith, as well as how I explain it. When interacting with guests, or more frequently with our cleaners, there is one disagreement that always comes up regardless if the issue at hand is purpose, the origin of life, drug use, forgiveness, grace, church history, conspiracy theories, or love. That is whether Jesus is the Son of God or not..
Everyone has their assumption or bias or presupposition or opinion on this. At least for me, I use to have this idea that people don't want to talk about God or faith or the divinity of Christ and therefore it was easier for me to rationalize in my mind why I should just leave it alone. But I am finding that people actually are interested and are willing to discuss this stuff, which is cool.
Anyway, back to the whole ''exactly who or even what is this Jesus guy" question. We can debate theology, interpretation, or the best 'style' of worship but the thing we should be most concerned with is whether Jesus is the Son of God and if so how do we communicate that truth to others.
Listen to what CS Lewis has to say about the ultimate question..
"I am trying here to prevent anyone from 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. 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."
Wow. Well said Mr. Lewis.
So what do you think?
No, I mean what do you believe?
This is a question we cannot unfortunately push to the side or ignore. If Jesus actually is who he claimed to be, then making a decision for ourselves on where we stand is at the very least worth considering.
Want some more food for thought? Check out this article.
