Jesus Complex GREAT MORAL TEACHER?Almost all scholars acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher. In fact, his brilliant insight into human morality is an accomplishment recognized even by those of other religions. In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner wrote, "It is universally admitted . that Christ taught the purest and sublimest ethics . which throws the moral precepts and maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade."1 Jesus' Sermon on the Mount has been called the most superlative teaching of human ethics ever uttered by an individual. In fact, much of what we know today as "equal rights" actually is the result of Jesus' teaching. Historian Will Durant said of Jesus that "he lived and struggled unremittingly for 'equal rights'; in modern times he would have been sent to Siberia. 'He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant'-this is the inversion of all political wisdom, of all sanity."2 Some have tried to separate Jesus' teaching on ethics from his claims about himself, believing that he was simply a great man who taught lofty moral principles. This was the approach of one of America's Founding Fathers. President Thomas Jefferson, ever the enlightened rationalist, sat down in the White House with two identical copies of the New Testament, a straight-edge razor, and a sheaf of octavo-size paper. Over the course of a few nights, he made quick work of cutting and pasting his own Bible, a slim volume he called "The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth." After slicing away every passage that suggested Jesus' divine nature, Jefferson had a Jesus who was no more and no less than a good, ethical guide.3 Thus Jefferson had reinvented Jesus to his own liking. In fact, he liked Jesus' ethical teaching about human equality so much that he used it in the Declaration of Independence in which he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.." But it was not Jesus' lofty moral and ethical teaching that polarized his enemies and altered 2000 years of history. In fact, as we will see, if Jesus' claims about himself weren't true, then he couldn't have been a great moral teacher. For that reason some merely call Jesus a great religious leader. Perhaps flawed, they may argue, but nonetheless, great. GREAT RELIGIOUS LEADER? Does the title, "great religious leader" best describe Jesus Christ? Surprisingly, Jesus never claimed to be a religious leader. He never got into religious politics or pushed an ambitious agenda, and he ministered almost entirely outside the established religious framework. When one compares Jesus with the other great religious leaders, a remarkable distinction emerges. Ravi Zacharias, who grew up in a Hindu culture, has studied world religions and observed a fundamental distinction between other religious founders and Jesus Christ. (Next) |