You can’t answer this question in a vacuum. And, in spite of the marvels of the Internet as a forum for ideas, that’s what we have here. At the end of the day, the answer that matters is the answer of anyone who thinks the question is important enough to struggle over, to inquire into and think about deeply.
C.S. Lewis famously asserted: “Either this man [Jesus] was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.”
But is Lewis, who has often eloquently and helpfully articulated classical Christianity in clear and popular prose, setting us up for a false choice?
The New Testament itself reflects Jesus’ own discomfort with the Son of God title. He was enigmatic, saying, “You say that I am.” He is reported as almost always referring to himself, in the third person, with the ancient Hebrew title, “Son of Man.” I heard a Bible teacher translate this as “Child of Humanity.” The scholar Walter Wink opts simply for “The Human Being,” suggesting that Jesus preferred to be known as “The Man.”
Jesus, you are the man!
The texts of early Christianity have been and continue to be among the most scrutinized in human history. For me, “inspired texts” are those that can be endlessly probed and still provoke us, take us to deeper understanding, and ultimately to truth. The Bible is filled with such inspiration.
But the Bible alone doesn't do it. You really need to join a community to believe anything real about Jesus—not to mention the astounding claims most of us Christians make about Jesus. Maybe some, like St. Paul, are knocked out on their Damascus Road and wake up believing. But most of us come to “know” and believe in Jesus because we’ve met and been welcomed by someone who already has.
The completely ordinary but sometimes extraordinary human beings in the faith community—yes, the church with all its flaws—have made Jesus more than an ancient teacher or somebody’s icon. They’ve made him real. And they don’t reduce the meeting to false choices.
Who is Jesus for me? Someone I can’t write off. Someone who continues to take me deeper than anyone else, or any other system, or any value or truth can take me. Someone whose own words and life make me see the world and its people more lovingly than I could otherwise. Someone who challenges me to the point wanting to chuck it all, but someone who accepts and loves me without reservation.
With that love, I am somehow still growing into the person I was created to be.
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