John 10:19-21 NLT
The people were again divided in their opinions about him. Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
I am so grateful for the complete honesty of the Gospel writers. They were clearly deeply committed followers of Jesus
and it would surely have been tempting for them to have chosen to ignore the opposition that Jesus faced. But they didn’t! They are astonishingly honest about the way in which Jesus brought division between people throughout his ministry. And it wasn’t simply a case of people liking or not liking his teaching. Some people believed that he was mad and demon possessed.
The fact is, of course, that Jesus has always divided opinion and still does. Richard Dawkins, the well-known atheist, recently conceded that, on the balance of probabilities, Jesus did exist. Although he also once stated that: “Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist.” John Lennon stated: “I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” Former US President Barack Obama said: “Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.”




It is vital that we all make up our mind about Jesus. C.S. Lewis powerfully expressed the decision that we all need to make when he wrote: “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 a 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 patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”




Question: How would you respond to someone who suggested that Jesus was merely a great teacher?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for sending Jesus into the world to be our saviour and friend. Amen

Released on 27 Jul 2022