It was C.S. Lewis who popularized the phrase: Jesus is either liar, lunatic or Lord. Meaning that either He knew He wasn’t God and deceived people – on purpose; He either thought He was God but wasn’t – deceiving Himself; or He is in fact God Incarnate. And the evidence of the fact that Jesus is God – who He intends us to believe Him to be – is plainly laid out for us in the Gospels. Today’s gospel from St. John gives us just one example of proof that we need to know who Jesus is in reality…
St. John’s Gospel is the most theologically rich. Yet, like the other 3, its purpose is to reveal, through faith, the real Jesus. The Wedding at Cana comes as the first of the signs He performs, the first among many miracles that will be evidence enough for the disciples to believe in Him. John notes that precisely in this short passage. Lets not forget – he’s among the first followers. They really don’t know who He is … Jesus is showing them, revealing Himself to them… and they’re believing…
In England and France in the 17th and 18th century brought on the “Enlightenment Period” which fostered the concept of a “higher being” that could be known through reason but rejected any sort of supernatural deity … In particular one who interacts with humanity. The Founding Fathers of our country brought with them a weird mix of deism and Christianity which set the stage for mainstream Protestantism of our time … and liberal Catholicism. It’s a Christianity with Christ … Impersonal, vague, socially ethical … Jesus is no more than a cheerleader of morality. And as such, one can define religion, belief, morality on their own terms…
Have you ever asked yourself – who do I believe Jesus really is? God or not God? Now another question we could ask ourselves is this: what do the Gospel writers want us to believe about Jesus? What does the world want us to believe? And this is the question for our time… There has been – and continues to be – a slow erosion of Christianity in our society and with it the crumbling of morality, doctrine, virtue… And why – because once you remove Christ a person can make religion or non-religion according to the framework of one’s own mind… This is not the worship and belief in God it is a belief in oneself. The world wants us to believe in ourselves. At the very heart of Christianity is Christ … The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity … God Incarnate… and this God of ours, today and everyday, challenges us to repent of our sins, to live lives of virtue – moral goodness – not simply because it is socially ethical but because the True and Living God has taken residence in our hearts. Our God is a person not a concept.
CS Lewis argued that there is evidence enough in the Gospels. And since the written Word serves to reveal the only Begotten Son of God, we have no reason not to believe the Scriptures. And to believe the Scriptures is to believe that Jesus Christ is not a liar, He is not insane… He is God Incarnate. and right belief, right practice, and right worship – this is what makes us whole and complete and keeps Him alive in our world today.