Jesus: Jerk, or Savior? Honestly Confronting the Galilean Carpenter - Page 2

Written by Brian D. Wilson

This is no isolated incident on the part of this trouble making Galilean carpenter either. Throughout the New Testament this moral teacher only adds to the outrage: "I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved," (John 10:9). "I am the true vine." (John 15: 1) "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him, may have eternal life." (John 6:40).

Apparently Jesus told John he is the exclusive way to heaven. How do you square that with his humanity? He is either a maniac or a power hungry charlatan--if his claims are untrue.

A Mere Mediator?

Then there are his claims to forgive sins. Jesus enters the home of a man in the town of Capernaum. Immediately word goes out and a throng begins to gather inside the house that eventually pours into the street. Four men soon arrive carrying a paralytic on a pallet.

The crowd has come to see a miracle, while the Pharisees have come to trip him up in his words. A miraculous healing indeed comes, but it is what happens just before that is surprising. Jesus looks at the multitude and says "But in order that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he said to the paralytic -- "I say to you rise, take up your pallet and go home." (Mark 2:10-12).

Again Jesus is invited into the house of a Pharisee named Simon. A "sinful" woman, probably a prostitute, comes to where Jesus is sitting and pours fragrant oils on his feet to anoint him. When she is done Jesus makes a lesson of her to Simon, noting her devotion to him. Then he looks at her and says, "Your sins have been forgiven." (Luke 7:48).

What? A healing is one thing, but twice comes the claim by the Galilean that he can forgive sins. The outrage is magnified when one considers that those in ancient Jewish culture absolutely believed that only God can forgive sins.

Just to let this set in consider this question: What if you came to me one evening and told me that for the past year and a half you have been having an affair with my wife? What if I replied, "I know what you have done and I forgive you." You would likely be both relieved and surprised by my magnanimity.

However, suppose you came to me and said, "I have something pretty shocking to tell. You know our mutual friend at the office Carl, right? I have been having an affair with his wife for over a year." Suppose I replied, "You have done a bad thing, but do not worry, your sins have been forgiven. I absolve you of the wrong you have committed against your friend."