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<\/source><\/picture>When the officers sent by the Pharisees to seize Jesus returned without Him, their explanation for why was the same reason Christ ended up being murdered by those who sent them: \u201cNever has a man spoken the way this Man speaks\u201d (John 7:46).<\/p>\n
That\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
We read Christ\u2019s words today and don\u2019t flinch, but to fresh ears back in that day \u2014 oh my.\u00a0 What Jesus said had many labeling Him arrogant, blasphemous, and crazy, with them remarking, \u201cWho do you make yourself out to be?\u201d (John 8:53).<\/p>\n
Although hard to do, let\u2019s cut them a little slack and play make-believe for a minute, shall we? Imagine you sit down with Jesus for the first time over lunch and say, \u201cSo \u2026 tell me about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d He says, \u201cThe first thing you need to know is that all authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). And while those two things will pass away, what I say never will (Matt. 24:25). That\u2019s why you should build your life on what I tell you, much like a man who built his house on a rock\u201d (Matt. 7:24).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should also understand that anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:54). That\u2019s right, I\u2019m resurrection and life: if you believe in Me, you\u2019ll never die\u201d (John 11:25\u201326). And if you\u2019re lucky, you might just see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on Me\u201d (John 1:51).<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see \u2026 what else? Well, I\u2019m bread that\u2019s come down out of heaven\u201d (John 6:51), also the Light of the world (John 8:12), the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8), and the good shepherd over sheep like you (John 10:11). I don\u2019t just speak truth, but I\u00a0am<\/em>\u00a0truth and no one comes to God but by Me (John 14:6). And if anyone denies that I\u2019ll deny them before God\u201d (Matt. 10:33).<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I should also tell you that God and I are one and the same (John 10:30), everything that is God\u2019s is mine (John 17:10), and if you don\u2019t remain with me, you\u2019ll be like a branch that dries up and gets burned if you know what I mean (John 15:6). We can be friends if you do what I command you (John 15:14), but if you oppose me, well, you\u2019re proving that your father is the devil\u201d (John 8:44).<\/p>\n Hello!<\/p>\n Tell me you wouldn\u2019t be working hard not to soil your fruit of the looms after that discourse. You\u2019d probably be thinking exactly what some did back then: \u201cHe has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?\u201d (John 10:20).<\/p>\n Now, you might not beat a fast retreat\u00a0if<\/em>\u00a0you knew He\u2019d done some pretty amazing things like spontaneously cure major illnesses, bring dead people back to life, give sight to the blind, shut down storms with a single word, stuff thousands to the gills with food that started out as a sack lunch and sent demons reeling back to where they came. That would help, which is why He told some of His detractors they should believe His words \u201cbecause of the works themselves\u201d (John 14:11).<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t happen, though.<\/p>\n When He brought sight to the man born blind, they called Him a \u201csinner\u201d (John 9:24). When He raised Lazarus from the dead, they said He had to die (John 11:50). Same when He restored a man\u2019s withered hand (Matt. 12:14). When He expelled demons, they said it was through the power of the devil (Mark 3:22).<\/p>\n And when He rose from the dead, they bought off the witnesses who were there (Matt. 28:12-13). \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Why? It all boiled down to the things He said, which they deemed outrageous, arrogant, audacious, and blasphemous.<\/p>\n Never mind they were true.<\/p>\n However, He told them they\u2019d do that: \u201cBut because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me\u201d (John 8:45). Think of that as the forerunner of Jack Nicholson\u2019s famous line in\u00a0A Few Good Men<\/em>: \u201cYou can\u2019t handle the truth!\u201d<\/p>\n They couldn\u2019t deal with His over-the-top claims back then and their offspring can\u2019t handle His truth today when we say the same things about Him. That\u2019s because the pesky truth zeitgeist has meandered through the ages, working its way through the Enlightenment, Modernism, and Postmodernism, and is currently entrenched in post-truth, which when coupled with pragmatism is one deadly cocktail.<\/p>\n We\u2019re at the point where\u00a0it\u2019s considered arrogant to say you have the truth about something, heck, anything. Even math is supposedly fair game and\u00a0could be racist<\/a>\u00a0according to some.<\/p>\n Our culture nods in agreement with Nietzsche who\u00a0wrote<\/a>: \u201cWhat then is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms \u2026 truths are illusions \u2026 coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.\u201d<\/p>\n The only problem with what Nietzsche said is, well, everything. Objective truth does exist, and it always came out of the mouth of Christ.<\/p>\n Part of the problem is that Jesus\u2019 claims and words aren\u2019t fuzzy, accommodating, and safe, but are instead black and white and demand a response. The same goes for us when we speak His truth, as A. W. Tozer\u00a0wrote<\/a>, \u201cWe are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.\u201d<\/p>\n But then that\u2019s the issue, isn\u2019t it, when it comes to the words of Jesus? \u201cNever has a man spoken the way this Man speaks.\u201d<\/p>\n Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n