“Nobody ever went away from an encounter with Jesus saying, “That was a good talk.” Jesus gently but relentlessly asked people to make a decision about their relationship with him. The fundamental decision involved this invitation: Follow me. Come be with me, and learn from me how to be like me.”
from “God Is Closer Than You Think: This Can Be the Greatest Moment of Your Life Because This Moment Is the Place Where You Can Meet God” by John Ortberg
That quote really hit home with me when I read it.
I know people who have said that the Bible has some really good stories.
Many people think that Jesus was a “good” teacher – like with morals and things like that.
I did a Google search to come up with some more –
- Jesus’ principles are worth following
- Jesus taught the same thing as other religions
- Jesus was a wise leader whose teachings have changed the world
That second one is clearly from someone who didn’t understand what Jesus taught – because He did not teach the same thing as any other religion.
The others – also from people who didn’t understand – but maybe in a way that’s not quite so obvious.
Coming away from Jesus and saying they had a “good talk” would have gotten these actual words from C S Lewis –
“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 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 up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
You can’t have a “good talk” with Jesus, any more than you can think He was a “good teacher”.
Not if you understand what He said.
His message was so radical that the Jewish leaders of His time wanted to kill him!
Mk 11:18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
So thinking Jesus was a “good teacher” and someone to follow because He taught the same things as other religions is out of the question. His claims about being God cannot be ignored – and they cannot be subservient to any claim that Jesus was “merely” a good teacher.
His message was so radical that many people who understood it walked away from Him.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
Jn 6:60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Jn 6:61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”
Jn 6:66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
And this isn’t the only time we read of people leaving because of a tough message.
Conclusion
So if you’re thinking something like Jesus is good to talk to – or a good moral teacher – or the same as other religions –
you need to think again.
He wasn’t.
Jesus is better than that.
The quote and info on the book are available at amazon.com — http://amzn.to/2beLKzJ