C.S. Lewis famously asserted in Mere Christianity that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. These are the three options that, for Lewis, we have available to us when we stand before the claims Jesus made about Himself. In today’s Gospel, we can see the Pharisees struggle with the same three options.
First, Jesus tells them that whoever believes in Him will never see death. The Pharisees scoff at this, telling Jesus He is acting like someone who’s possessed, or we could say, acting like a lunatic. This is crazy, everyone dies after all. Jesus must be claiming that He is much more than the human man they can see before them.
Jesus presses his point further. He explains His relationship with the Father, and tells the Pharisees he would indeed be a liar if He didn’t highlight the truth of who He is. Still, they cannot understand what He is saying. They are hearing his words with human ears and try to make logical sense of them. How can He know Abraham, he’s not even 50 years old and Abraham died generations ago! He’s got to be lying about the things he claims to know. Jesus tries one more time, and that is what sends the Pharisees over the edge.
In my imagination, Jesus looks them each in the eye and boldly proclaims his identity: “Before Abraham came to be, I AM.” This is a huge statement, because Jesus is using the same name for himself that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. Jesus is God, the Lord. And this is the moment when we have to choose, just like the Pharisees did. When they heard these words, they couldn’t accept them. They picked up stones to kill Jesus. They could keep talking, debating, even trying to understand a lunatic or a liar. But, they couldn’t accept the possibility that He could be the Lord.
What will we choose? Will we continue to dialogue with Jesus even when we don’t understand? When we doubt? When we are fearful, angry, or hurt? Will we stay close to Him because we know that He is the Lord, or will we recoil like the Pharisees who were unable to be open to the mysterious ways of the Lord?
Jesus shows us today that He can’t be fully defined by human understanding. We can study, learn, discuss, and pray about the mystery of the Incarnation and we absolutely should. But at the end of the day it is a mystery of our faith that we cannot fully define with our human intellect and language. Nonetheless, we can still join our voice in faith with C.S. Lewis and with those who have come before us and boldly proclaim, “Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!”
Daily Reading
Monday in the Octave of Easter
Reading 1 Acts 2:14, 22-33 On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: “You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying…
Saint of the Day
Saint Hunna
Saint Hunna, “the Holy Washerwoman,” washed and cared for the poor in Strasbourg, earning her name through her noble acts of service.
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