Who Is This Man?

Reading The Beatitudes with new eyes this morning (Matt 5.1-12). Christ turns everything on its head it seems. Those who mourn will be comforted (isn't mourning generally associated with not being comforted because of the loss of a loved one for example?). The meek shall inherit the earth (do I even need to explain why this is topsy-turvey?). Then this: ““Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matt 5:11–12 ESV).

What struck me about this comment was that here is this itinerant Jewish teacher with no credentials and he is saying that they are blessed if they are persecuted because of him!?! Who is this man? What kind of person says stuff like this? It fits in a long line of outlandish statements that Christ makes about himself. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Bread of Life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Again and again Christ knocks us back on our heels and forces us to catch our breath and say, "Either he is who he says he was—The Messiah. The Christ. The Son of God—or he was a megalomaniac with an ego that has not been matched since time began; or he could possibly be crazy."

This is a guy who walked on water. Who fed 5000 (probably more like 10000) people with five loaves of bread and two fish; who healed a man blind from birth; who cast demons out of people on a routine basis; who healed the centurion's servant without ever seeing him. Who do you think he was? Do you think he was a fraud with a big ego? Crazy? God? It seems to me that his actions back up his words. He was—and is—the Son of God.