TRANSCENDENT: One Man ....... Just a Man

ONE MAN… JUST A MAN….

WHAT CAN JUST ONE MAN DO?

Approximate Reading Time – 20 Minutes

"It is hard to eulogise any man – to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person – their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone's soul. How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world."

President Barrack Obama at Mandela's Memorial Service

On Dec 5^th 2013 the something happened - On the Morning of December 6^th 2013, president Jacob Zuma announced to the world that Nelson Madiba Mandela had passed on; the world stopped; On December 10^th at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg Nelson Mandela's memorial service was attended by 52 presidents, 16 prime ministers, 32 former heads of states and over 300 other world leaders, dignitaries and A list celebrities. Official viewer statistics on the memorial service have been hard to come by, but we can quickly make a careful estimate; NPR reported that as many as 2 billion people are thought to have watched Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005. Princess Diana 1997 funeral at Westminster Abbey in London had approximately 2.5 billion viewers worldwide, the Associated Press reported- half the World's population watched the funeral of Princess Diana; and by then the world was not the global village it now is; I think it would be appropriate to approximate that 3 out of every 4 people saw Mandela's memorial service on TV putting the number at slightly over 5 Billion people. What an amazing fete for a man who was….

"…..born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe, Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement -- a movement that at its start had little prospect for success. Like Dr. King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. Emerging from prison, without the force of arms, he would -- like Abraham Lincoln -- hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. And like America's Founding Fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations -- a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power after only one term."

Barrack Obama

In all aspects, I find the Madiba Story fascinating to almost a mythical or legendary stature; but then Mandela is no myth, he lived in our time, amongst us. So when faced with the question "Can just one man change the world?" I say with the conviction of having witnessed it that "YES ….. Yes, Just one man can Change the world"

As matter of fact several other people have previously changed our world in their different spheres: Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell; Adolf Hitler, Confucius, Martin Luther King Jnr, Christopher Columbus, Mahatma Gandhi, mother Theresa etc. Once the late Nobel laureate Prof Wangari Maathai was asked what made her so persistent in her fight for conservation of forests in Africa while faced with physical harm, torture and imprisonment; to many of us who watched her relentless struggles with the powers that be, it all seemed futile. She had this to say,

"Once the forest caught fire, and while all the animals were running for their lives, the humming bird thought it better to run to the river, scoop some water in its beak and pour it on to the fire. All the animals laughed at its vain effort. "what do you think you are doing?' the elephant asked. 'The best I can,' replied the humming bird, 'if only we could all just do the best we can, maybe we can stop the fire.' All the animals felt challenged; the elephants sucked in water with their trunks, the rodents scratched the ground for soil, the beavers dammed the river, the giraffes beat up the fire from above with twigs and soon the fire was stopped and the forest saved."

Prof Maathai said that all she had done was just the 'best she could' against a task that seemed momentous. The 'best they could do' is what these legendary men and women gave to the world, they changed the world not because they we extraordinary in any way, they were mere men and were quick to humbly admit so, and even those that for certain reasons felt larger than life, humanity had them ending up on the wrong end of history books; Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein; Life never failed to remind them that they were just mere men…

Given the sweep of his life, the scope of his accomplishments, the adoration that he so rightly earned, it's tempting we think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, Madiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears; his miscalculations along with his victories.

"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."

Nelson Mandela

But there once lived one man, about two thousand years ago, who was not so modest about himself. He was the center of attention wherever he went? Some mysterious, indefinable characteristic set him apart from all other men. It wasn't merely His personality that captivated those who heard him. Those who witnessed his words and life tell us that something about Him was different from all other men. His only credentials were himself; he never wrote a book, commanded an army, held a political office, or owned any property. He mostly traveled within a hundred miles of his village, attracting crowds who were amazed at his provocative words and stunning deeds.

For three decades he lived an ordinary life; born probably under the same circumstances as Mandela – A poor carpenter's son in a rural village away from any corridors of power. Educated only in the synagogue by the elders of his tribe of Judah; There was nothing extra ordinary about Him to those he grew up around, until one day in his thirtieth year, after disappearing from his village for 40 days, he came back and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue as was his custom, and stood up to read. A scroll from one of the prophets of old was handed to him and without hesitating he chose to read the following words.

"18 The spirit of the Lord is on me, Because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim Freedom for prisoners, And recovery of sight for the blind, to release the Oppressed, 19 To proclaim the year Of the Lord's favour"

Then without bothering to interpret the scripture, he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The entire synagogue looked at Him in amazement, all eyes fastened on him. And he then said to them;

"Today this scripture is fulfilled in your presence."

The crowd begun to murmur asking, "Isn't this Joseph's Son? the one we have known since he was a Child?" In all probability if Jesus of Nazareth had not uttered those words in that synagogue that Saturday he never would have been crucified, and he probably would now not be on top of ALL Known and credible lists of the "The people that most changed the World". Today half the world's population call themselves his followers.

So Who Was This Man Jesus…..

Now imagine if a friend you have known for over 30 years suddenly started saying the things that Jesus started uttering? He would be walking down the road, seemingly like any other man, then turn and say something like, 'Before Abraham was, I am.' Or, 'If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.' Or, very calmly, after being accused of blasphemy, he would say, 'The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.' To the dead he might simply say, 'Come forth,' or, 'Rise up.' And they would obey. He would tell a lame man, "get up and walk, your sins are forgiven". To the storms on the sea he would say, 'Be still.' And to a loaf of bread he would say, 'Become a thousand meals.' And it was done immediately." Wouldn't you be staggered? Can you now understand where his own people thought him a lunatic, a trouble maker and a blasphemer and ended up crucifying him?

Jesus continually referred to himself in ways that confounded his listeners. Jesus made the audacious statement, "Before Abraham was, I AM." He told Martha and others around her, "I AM the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he is dead, yet shall he live." Likewise, Jesus would make statements like, "I AM the light of the world," "I AM the only way to God," or, "I AM the "truth." These and several other of his claims were preceded by the sacred words for God, "I AM" (ego eimi). What did Jesus mean by such statements, and what is the significance of the term, "I AM"?

Jesus was using "holy" words to describe himself. Jesus' usage of God's name greatly angered the religious leaders. The point is that these Old Testament scholars knew exactly what he was saying—he was claiming to be God, the Creator of the universe. It is only this claim that would have brought the accusation of blasphemy. This was a real shock among these Jews of that time: there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time." These claims were simply too radical and profound to be ignored. Since the time of Moses, no practicing Jew would ever refer to himself or anyone else by "I AM." As a result, Jesus' "I AM" claims infuriated the Jewish leaders. One time, for example, some leaders explained to Jesus why they were trying to kill him: "Because you, a mere man, have made yourself God."

It is on record that Jesus did believe in the Jewish doctrine of one god (Monotheism). He's cited constantly praying to his Father as, "the only true God." But in that same prayer, Jesus spoke of having always existed with his Father. And when Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus said, "Philip, have I been with you so long and you don't know me? Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father." So the question is: "Was Jesus claiming to be the Hebrew God who created the universe?"

So who really was this man Jesus? The only indisputable truth is that he was human, no one can argue with that, and also that most of his early followers considered him a prophet like Elijah or Moses, still those very close to him, like his disciples called him the messiah, but even a superficial reading of the Gospels reveals that Jesus claimed to be someone more than a prophet. It is also a known fact that Jesus never explicitly said, "I am God." It is true that he never stated the exact words, "I am God." However, Jesus also never explicitly said, "I am a man," or "I am a prophet."

So what was he? In 'The World's Religions' Huston Smith observed, "Only two people ever astounded their contemporaries so much that the question they evoked was not 'Who is he?' but 'What is he?' They were Jesus and Buddha. The answers these two gave were exactly the opposite. Buddha said unequivocally that he was a mere man, not a god—almost as if he foresaw later attempts to worship him. Jesus, on the other hand, made claims about himself that were both mind blowing and staggering….

Let's examine all the possibilities of 'what' Jesus was:

A great Moral Teacher?

"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."

Joseph Klausner, Prof of Jewish Literature

The sermon on the mountain (Mat Chapters 5-7) has been called the most superlative speech on human ethics ever uttered by an individual. Jesus gave this teaching while seated on some rocks on a mountain side to a multitude of people who freely followed him everywhere just to hear his profound teachings. It was not a written speech, he didn't have a horde of highly educated speech writers and it was not rehearsed yet much of what we know today as "equal rights" actually is the result of this teaching.

"He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant'

Mat 23:11

This is the inversion of all political wisdom, of all sanity; it has had a profound effect on many world leaders many of whom have acknowledged Jesus' high moral and ethical standing but have been reluctant to recognize his deity. Mahtma Gandhi for instance, 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, who cut and pasted a copy of the New Testament, removing sections he thought referred to Jesus' deity, while leaving in other passages regarding Jesus' ethical and moral teaching. Jefferson carried around his cut and pasted New Testament with him, revering Jesus as perhaps the greatest moral teacher of all time. In fact, Jefferson's memorable words in the Declaration of Independence were rooted in Jesus' teaching that each person is of immense and equal importance to God, regardless of sex, race, or social status. The famous document sets forth, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …"

Was he a great religious leader?

"There is a fundamental distinction between Jesus Christ and the founders of other major religions. In all of these, there emerges an instruction, a way of living. It is not Zoroaster to whom you turn; it is Zoroaster to whom you listen. It is not Buddha who delivers you; it is his Noble Truths that instruct you. It is not Mohammad who transforms you; it is the beauty of the Koran that woos you. By contrast, Jesus did not only teach or expound His message. He was identical with His message."

Ravi Zacharias, who grew up in a Hindu culture and studied world religions

Jesus' teaching message was simply "Come to me" or "Follow me" or "Obey me." Also, Jesus made it clear that his primary mission was to forgive sins, something only God could do. He clearly did not think of himself as just another religious leader. He never got into religious politics or pushed an ambitious agenda, and he ministered almost entirely outside the established religious framework.Matter of fact, he constantly reprimanded the religious leaders of the time;

2… do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets like to do, that they may be recognized and honored and praised by men..

Matt 6:2

Could he have been a fame and power hungry liar?

Many people hold the view that Jesus was intentionally misleading people. One of the best-known and most influential political works of all time was written by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1532. In his classic, The Prince, Machiavelli exalts power, success, image, and efficiency above loyalty, faith, and honesty. According to Machiavelli, lying is okay if it accomplishes a political end. Could Jesus Christ have built his entire ministry upon a lie just to gain power, fame, or success? In fact, the Jewish opponents of Jesus were constantly trying to expose him as a fraud and liar. They would barrage him with questions in attempts to trip him up and make him contradict himself. Yet Jesus responded with remarkable consistency.

Maybe if many people believed he was God, he would yield tremendous influence and power; isn't that why many world leaders lay the claim to divinity? But Jesus shunned all attempts to elect him to any worldly position of power and instead preferred to reach out to the outcasts – the prostitutes and lepers – creating a network of people with zero political influence who followed him wherever he went; it was bizarre, all that Jesus did and said moved diametrically in the other direction from power. It would seem that if power was Jesus' motivation, he would have avoided the cross at all costs. Yet, on several occasions, he told his disciples that the cross was his destiny and mission. How would dying on a Roman cross bring one power? Would you be willing to die for a lie?

Death, of course, brings all things into proper focus. And while many martyrs have died for a cause they believed in even when that cause is known to others as untrue – like the terrorists of 9/11, none have been willing to die for a lie known to them. Certainly all hopes for Jesus' own personal gain would have ended on the cross. Yet, to his last breath, he would not relinquish his claim of being the unique Son of God.

Maybe all he wanted was an enduring legacy?

This could be a plausible explanation of Jesus' acts and deeds. Surely being beaten to a pulp and nailed to a cross for unsubstantiated claims would certainly be remembered for a very long time. If Jesus were to have simply dropped the claim of being God's Son, he never would have been condemned. It was his claim to be God and his unwillingness to recant of it that got him crucified. If enhancing his credibility and historical reputation was what motivated Jesus to lie, one must explain how a carpenter's son from a poor Judean village could ever anticipate the events that would catapult his name to worldwide prominence. How would he know his message would survive? Jesus' disciples had fled and Peter had denied him. Not exactly the formula for launching a religious legacy. How could he have known with such certainty that he would definitely end up on that cross?

"there is no evidence, either in church history or in secular history that Jesus lied about anything; there is simply no evidence of a defect in his moral character"

Philip Schaff - Historian

so to all the arguments that hold as their foundation that Jesus was lying, then the question becomes How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could a deceitful, selfish, depraved man have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? Its simply is not a possibility that he would have lied…. which then only leaves us with one last explanation….

Was he a then a self-deceived lunatic?

Albert Schweitzer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1952 for his humanitarian efforts, had his own views about Jesus. Schweitzer concluded that insanity was behind Jesus' claim to be God. In other words, Jesus was wrong about his claims but didn't intentionally lie. According to this theory, Jesus was deluded into actually believing he was the Messiah.

You know, if you considered everything well, the ONLY deduction you can logically arrive at if Jesus' claims about being the son of God weren't true MUST be that he was insane. for someone to truly believe in their heart and consistently hold as true their claim to be God he would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. But was Jesus really a lunatic? Clearly those that heard him and still read his words today find him rational, and could have his disciples have elected to die for a lunatic; all but one of the twelve were martyred, could half the world's population today be followers of a lunatic? This sounds very farfetched.

So was Jesus God Incarnate or the Devil incarnate?

These are the only two remaining possibilities. If you have gotten this far in this deductive essay, then you are a believer in the existence of a force for good and an opposing force for evil. You are also pretty convinced that Jesus was really something like no Man ever was or will ever be… so what was he, good or evil?

Only God is infinitely good, only God is "The Truth and the Life". The devil is a "A liar and the destroyer of life" So for us to know whether Jesus was light or darkness, it boils down to only one single incidence – The Resurrection. Did Jesus really conquer death? Did he really emerge from the depths of the darkness and the land of the dead? If Jesus did emerge from the dead, then he truly is life…. If he did not, then his entire life was truly a lie and he was "the liar". So is the story of the resurrection of Jesus the greatest Hoax known to man or is it the greatest revelation given to man?For answers to this pertinent questions see my follow up Essay:

'Caveat Emptor – Thin line between truth and Manipulation".

Wish you well in your spiritual journey, remember;

……. I raise the argument – you make the Judgement….

TRANSCENDENT

Sunday, January 26, 2014

One Man ....... Just a Man

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