When it comes to the other major world religions, the other major world religions, for the most part, believe that Jesus was either a great teacher or great prophet. Which sounds nice, doesn't it? It sounds accommodating. It sounds very tolerant. The only problem is that Jesus didn't claim to be a great teacher or a great prophet. Who did Jesus claim to be? Claimed to be the son of God. If he isn't the son of God, he's not a great prophet, he's not a great teacher, he is the biggest liar in the history of the world. So let's be clear about that. If he isn't actually who he claimed to be, it's not like you can say, well, I'll tell you what, Jesus was really confused about that Messiah business, but let's give him a consolation prize and make him a great prophet.
These things are in incongruent. We got to start thinking about these things on a deeper level. These things are incongruent. And it sounds nice and it sounds friendly and it sounds accommodating and it sounds tolerant. Don't get me started on the tolerance thing, hey. I think that's another speech. But let me just say one thing. No, seriously, let me just say one thing, because I think it clears the whole thing up. You don't have to tolerate things that are good, do you? You don't sit down to a great meal and say, what a fabulous meal. I'll tolerate it. You don't come back from a great vacation and say, oh, we had a fabulous vacation. I tolerated it for 10 days. I just tolerated it. Now, you don't have to tolerate good things. And tolerance is the ultimate virtue in secular society today, the ultimate virtue of secularism. We've got to start thinking about these things on a deeper level.
The other major word religions believe that he was a great teacher or great prophet. Only, he didn't claim to be a great teacher or great prophet. He claimed to be the son of God. And if he isn't actually the son of God, then he perpetrated the biggest fraud in human history. The biggest fraud in human history. And so we're left with the reality that Jesus is actually who he claimed to be. C.S. Lewis said, you only got three choices. He's either a liar, a lunatic, or he is actually who he claimed to be. And I don't think it takes that long to get into it to realize that he is actually who he claims to be. And once you realize that, then everything changes. Everything changes when we truly encounter Jesus, everything changes when we really discover who Jesus is. And once we discover that he is actually who he claimed to be, the Gospel's change from being another inspiring book, to being the inspired works, the inspired word of God.
Matthew Kelly
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