1. What stood out to me from this chapter?
Throughout this chapter, people are trying to figure out who Jesus is. Some said he was a good man. Others say he was a deceiver. Other's said he was crazy or demon-possessed. Others believed that he was the Messiah, the chosen one sent by God. The book Mere Christianity is a composition of teachings by C.S. Lewis. One of the propositions he makes is that it is not logically possible to think that Jesus was just "a good teacher." If he was not God, but claimed to be, he was not good. He was either a liar or a lunatic. He goes on further to say, "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. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God." To me, this chapter points out this "Trilemma", that Jesus was either Lord, liar, or lunatic, as well as any other in Scripture.
2. How does this relate to any other Scripture I know?
It's also interesting that the temple guards who went to arrest Jesus ended up being amazed by him and couldn't bring themselves to go through with it. There are other similar examples of this happening in the Bible. The centurion standing at the cross said, "Surely this was the Son of God." The jailer who was keeping Paul and Silas in Acts 16 came to believe in God and he and his household were saved.
3. What does this mean for my life?
"Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him." (John 7:18) I want my life to be for God's glory. If I am called to speak, may it be not so people would think more highly of me, but of God.
4. What questions do I have about this passage?
Multiple people were asking the question, "Shouldn't the Messiah come from Bethlehem instead of Galilee?" Wasn't there anyone that knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem? What about his parents? Wouldn't his parents have said something? Wouldn't his brothers have said, "Actually he was born in Bethlehem when our mother was a virgin, after she received a vision from an angel and confirmation from shepherds and foreign dignitaries." You'd think that might have made a difference.
Those are my thoughts for this chapter. I'd love to hear yours. God's blessings to you and KEEP DIGGING IN!
In Christ,
Dan
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