Before we read the text for this morning I am going to ask you to do something a little different. I want you to listen to the reading not with a heart of faith but with a skeptical mind. If it helps, imagine that you do not know that Jesus is anything else but a teacher. You are a first century person who has just been introduced to him.

[Read John 6:35, 41-51]

Pretty incredible isn't it? For someone to make such claims. What if, later today, you were introduced to someone and that someone said, "Hi, I am the bread that has came down from heaven." You would look at your friend who just introduced you to this person and you would say, "I'm sorry, what did he just say?" Anyone who seriously made such claims would easily be labeled a kook, a nut, certifiable.

C.S. Lewis, in his book "Mere Christianity," makes the following statement about Jesus: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Throughout the book Lewis argues for the truthfulness and importance of the Christian faith. But before we go any further, let me recommend this: If you have a friend who has doubts about the Christian faith, go get this book "Mere Christianity" and give it to them. If they are honest in their doubts it will overcome many of them. In the book you will find the following idea put forth: Jesus was either a liar, lunatic, legend, or Lord.

This scene from Jesus' life (John 6:41-52) demonstrates these four possibilities. Jesus is either...

I

First, you can come to conclusion that Jesus was a liar. That is in essence what the Jews accuse him of when he is teaching in the synagogue (v. 59). At some point after the feeding of the five thousand Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee and lands in the area known as Capernaum. Capernaum is a lush green area of Palestine. It has become Jesus second home. Born in Bethlehem he now makes Capernaum his base of operation. Situated on the Sea it gives him access by land as well as sea. The disciples are called from this area. Jesus is no longer an unknown in town. They know him and his family and this is the point of contention with the leaders in the synagogue: “You are the son of Joseph and Mary from Nazareth north of here. How is it then that you say you are the bread which came down from heaven?”

It’s a rather easy question to pose. Jesus is the 29-year-old boy of Joseph. Born of flesh and blood, as the rest of us. God did not drop him down from heaven like some Prophet of old sent back to judge God’s people. The only conclusion you can come to, armed with this information, is that Jesus is lying!

You cannot come from the womb of Mary and also come down from heaven. It’s either one or the other but not both. Unless… Unless… It is here that we have to give thanks for Joseph. He did such a thorough job of concealing Mary’s situation that the unusual circumstances of her pregnancy never got out.

What do we call these unusual circumstances? The virgin birth. It is part of our creed, “born of the virgin Mary.” Jesus is both born of man and born of God. Born just the way you and I have been born but conceived in the womb differently, not by the will or effort of man: He is the God-man, Son of God and Son of Man.

This is what is lacking in the mind of the Jewish leaders and Jesus doesn’t dare get into a conversation about HOW he has “come from heaven.” If they did not believe based on the feeding of the five thousand, or the healings, or his power over the demons, they would not be convinced by a story of his virgin birth. It would be too easy for them to dismiss this as another lie and a tale told by an idiot.

II

And here we land upon the second view: You can come to the conclusion that Jesus was a lunatic. Some of the Jewish leaders no doubt held this view. But the leaders have to be careful, here. Jesus is immensely popular with the people so they instead casually suggest that he is lying. They hold the more serious charge until such time as it is needed. But you almost can’t blame them. Even Jesus said on the cross, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they do.” Take a look with me at the claims Jesus makes in these short ten verses. Jesus claims...

1. I have come down from heaven, v. 42.

2. People must come to me to get to the Father, v. 44.

3. I will cause your resurrection, v. 44.

4. I am the object of the prophet’s teachings, v. 45.

5. I am from God, v.46.

6. I have seen the Father, v. 46.

7. He who believes in me has eternal life, v. 47.

8. I am the bread of life, v. 48.

8. This bread is greater than Moses’ manna, v. 49-50.

9. You will live forever with my bread, v. 50.

10. This bread is my flesh given for the life of the world, v. 50.

Now, taking these claims into consideration, if this man is not God himself then he is an absolute lunatic. The last claim alone is enough to convict him: My flesh given for the life of the world. How, the Jewish leaders ask, can this man give us his flesh to eat? Of course we understand this as a reference to the Cross, but here again Jesus cannot go into detail.

But let’s you and I go into some detail: The bread image seems to be the point of confusion. What is meant by “bread”? The bread that Jesus offers is his body, which will be sacrificed on the cross. Bread was just a figure of speech. He wasn’t talking about an actual loaf of heavenly bread or some kind of spiritual power; he was simply using it as a metaphor. Bread, when we break it, sustains our bodies. His body, when broken on the cross, sustains our souls. In a word: We are forgiven and therefore we shall live forever with God in right relationship.

This is what the Jewish leaders do not understand, indeed they cannot. Not even his disciples understood it until after the resurrection. The teaching is too new, too different. He could not look at the Jewish leaders in the eye and say, “Oh, and by the way, what I meant by that bread thing is that you all are going to crucify me on a cross and there will no longer be any need for the temple sacrifices because I will be the ultimate and final sacrifice for the sins of the world.” Even if they understood the full meaning of his teachings they still would have come to the same inescapable conclusion: Here is a lunatic. His lies are so farfetched that he is delusional. He thinks he is God.

III

The third option is perhaps the most attractive of the three: You can come to the conclusion that Jesus was a legend. Now some people make the mistake of saying, Jesus never existed. You can’t say that. That’s not what is meant. He did exist. Jesus the man was not a legendary figure. The story of his life and his teachings was not concocted out of thin air. Historians agree that he existed. What you have to grapple with is his life.

What is meant by legend is that after his death on the cross a story developed that he was resurrected. The legend grew to include his divinity, his miracles, and his powers. These exaggerations eventually found their way into the teachings of Jesus and the writings we call the Gospels are the result. Jesus the divine Son of God is the myth of storytellers not the fact of history. This is what is meant when Jesus is viewed as a legend. And so again, it is absolutely unreasonable to suggest Jesus was anything else other than a real person.

Take the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It is generally agreed that there was a man named Arthur in Britain who was a war hero some 1500 years ago. He waged a successful campaign against Saxon settlers. That’s about all that can be said with any certainty. Was he a king? Probably not. The Round Table? Unclear whether it existed. Might have. But there was no sword in the stone, no Merlin the magician, and no Holy Grail. (And there certainly were no knights who say knee.) These were all legends that developed around a great war hero.

We all understand legends. We have many in our own culture. The problem with this view is it is nearly impossible to go into the bible and separate the man, the message, and miracles. Look at it this way. At the very core of Jesus’ teachings is the message that he is divine. If you remove this from his message you remove much of his teaching. In the gospel of John alone you have the eight “I Am” sayings. Jesus said of himself:

"I AM the Bread of Life"

"I AM the Light of the World"

"Before Abraham was, I am"

"I AM the Door"

"I AM the Good Shepherd"

"I AM the Resurrection and the Life"

"I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life"

"I AM the True Vine"

These eight sayings have one conclusion, that Jesus is God. Now one of two things happened here. Either Jesus said these things about himself or the church after his death developed these ideas and John put them on the lips of Jesus. But let me ask you. Why would the disciples, of whom John was one, commit their lives and give their lives as martyrs knowing that they had fabricated the supernatural aspects of Jesus’ life. I can understand one, maybe two of them creating a legend around their teacher, but not all of them. Not all would go to their deaths for what they knew to be a myth. Not all of them would devote their entire existence, giving up family and home, to perpetuate a lie.

So we are left with this: The picture that is presented of Jesus is a genuine accurate record of what happened. Yes they have their personal reasons for writing their letters but His miracles are not legends. His powers are not the stuff of fables. His claim of deity is not the fictitious work of a writer.

IV

So, finally, you can come to the fourth conclusion that he is Lord. Let’s review our choices: The list of choices is that Jesus is either a liar, lunatic, legend, or Lord. And let me add here that these are your only choices. Left off this list are some pretty attractive alternatives. Prophet is not on the list. Many would like to relegate him to this status. The entire Muslim world does. Teacher and Rabbi, is not on the list. Many have put him here. Pointing to the importance of his life and teaching, they recognize that he shaped world history. Also off the list is great moral teacher, sage, philosopher, or ethicist. Why? Why are none of these on the list? It is because, as CS Lewis pointed out, Jesus has not left that option open for us. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. A great moral teacher would not call himself God. A rabbi who was merely a rabbi would not call himself Lord.

We are left with one option: He is Lord.

If you call him a liar let me ask you: What teachings, exactly, are lies? One cannot reject all his lessons on life as lies? You would be heartless to do so. His teachings, understood on a natural human level, are some of the greatest if not the greatest of all mankind. And could someone so insightful be so insane at the same time?

If you call him a lunatic let me ask you: In what way is he insane? His actions do not portray a man who is unstable. You might site his belief about who he was—his belief that he was God—as an example. There might be some merit to this if any of his contemporaries—the Jewish leaders or his disciples—viewed him as such. Perhaps you could say that the charge of blaspheme was the equivalent. But it is interesting to note that Jesus demonstrated some of the worlds most acute and critical thinking when challenged by his adversaries. This is not the mark of a deranged mind.

If you call him a legend let me ask you: Is he a legend? How do you know? Were you there when man walked on the moon or Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address? No you were not. How do you know then? You say someone told me. That is precisely right and someone told me that Jesus lived. There were eyewitnesses who touch him, saw him, heard him. Is his teachings and life’s story the work of disciples who wanted to make him more than he really was? Why then did they devote their lives to a literary ghost?

No. He is not a liar, a lunatic, or a legend. He is Lord! Amen.