Emmanuel--God with us. No other religion makes this outlandish claim. No other religion claims that God cared enough to share life with his created beings. In all other religions, God is "other," he is not us. How many people have you heard say: "Well, I would believe in God if he appeared to me." Yet, this is exactly what Jesus did--he lived amongst us to confirm his existence.
The life of Jesus (his actual name was Yeshua) is well attested, not only by Christian sources, but also by Jewish and Roman sources. There is no doubt that Yeshua of Nazareth lived. There is no doubt that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Those facts are irrefutable. But, was Jesus God?
First, employing logic strongly suggests that Jesus was God. While many want to think of Jesus as merely a wise man, Lewis points out that a wise man does not claim to be God. Think about it. If Jesus were alive today, living as a nomad, and claiming to be God, we would send him to the closest homeless shelter, not venerate him as a wise man. (What do you think about the guy on the street corner with the placard claiming the world is ending. You don't call him a wise man.) So, you can't claim that Jesus was wise when he made the outlandish claim that he was God. So, either he was a lunatic, or he could have been a con man (although it's unclear what he gained from being one), or he was God.
Second, at the time of his crucifixion, all of his friends abandoned him except for the women. Yet, after the purported resurrection, all of the apostles, save one, were martyred for their beliefs. They changed from cowards to courageous men--the best explanation for this is the Resurrection. (By the way, the story of the empty tomb seems true, because if it was a "made up" story, the creator of the story would have had men find the empty tomb, not women.) Not only did the apostles change from cowards to courageous men, but many, many Christians were martyred rather than recant their faith. The Romans used Christians for all type of blood sports--had them fight gladiators, had them fight wild animals, crucified them, and even lit them as torches. Still the Christian faith spread. The Christian faith spread even with the threat and reality of violence done to the early believers. (In sharp contrast, Islam has always spread by violence--by the point of a sword. In Christianity, the violence was done to the Christians because they professed allegiance to Christ. In Islam, the violence was done to persons to force them to profess allegiance to Mohammed. The two religions couldn't be more different.) So, the early believers persisted in their faith in Christ, and the resurrection, even in the face of death. If the Resurrection happened, as they believed to their death, then Jesus was God.
Finally, Jesus' teachings were unique--they went beyond anything that any man had ever taught insofar as ethics. No other religious teacher ever contended that the Law is so perfect that men cannot keep it. No other religious leader attacks man's thoughts to the degree that Jesus did. Jesus knew that, if you could change hearts, you could change actions. Jesus knew that grace, not compulsion or duty, is the only true change agent. Jesus taught these things, and they went against the grain of all existing religious orders.
So, this year at Christmas, take a new look at Jesus. Set aside what they are teaching you in church--about how to live holy lives or how to have your best life now. For heaven's sake, don't let the religious teachers and preachers convince you that Jesus was a good moral teacher. Instead, read the New Testament as if you have never read it before. Look at the people that Jesus consorted with--the downtrodden, the social outcasts, the non-religious. Look at what sharp, penetrating words Jesus had for the religious people. You can't help but, at the very least, desire for Jesus to be God, if not decide that he was God.
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