The Problem with JESUS: a Lunatic, Liar or...

Why is Jesus still such a controversial figure, even 2,000 years later?

In this video, we explore **"The Problem of Jesus"**—not just historically, but personally and culturally. Whether you're a believer, skeptic, or curious seeker, this video is for you.

👉 What did Jesus *really* claim?

👉 Why did His message cause such a stir?

👉 And why does He still challenge us today?

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It is abundantly clear that Jesus Christ had and still has many followers. And by many we mean billions to this day. But why? What makes Jesus so attractive? It’s not like Jesus was the Brad Pitt of his time. In fact, research shows that Jesus did not look at all like a handsome, white hippie with straight blond hair. Rather, he just looked … like any normal Jewish man of his time.

Still, just being around him must have been irresistible to many. To see him. To hear him speak. To touch Him. To eat with Him. And to follow Him wherever He went. What was the appeal?

It is said that Jesus performed many miracles in his lifetime. A lot of these miracles performed by Jesus concerned forms of healing. From making the blind see to helping paralyzed people walk again. He drove out evil spirits and he even healed a woman who just touched his clothes. And then there are those miracles where folks around Jesus must have been really astounded by. Once Jesus even commanded a storm - calming the waves with the power of his words alone.

So… Who is this Jesus? It might be good to find out what Jesus said… about himself! While many people claim Jesus was just a great teacher, he said some pretty outrageous things, Especially for the time Jesus lived in. For instance: he took the divine name ‘I am’ - only to be said by and about God Himself… …for himself.

I don't know if you know the story of Moses. But long before Jesus lived, he led millions of people from slavery to the promised land of Canaan. This "name" of God belongs exclusively to God, God himself once told Moses, a leader of the people, long before Jesus lived. This Moses, who was to deliver his people from a situation of slavery, asked God, "When they ask me who You are, what should I say?" And God answered, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say: 'I am has sent me to you.'"

Since then, even Christians have often referred to God as "The Great I Am." You can probably imagine that if someone were to come up to you today and give himself this name, he would make big and wild statements about himself. Well, that is exactly what Jesus did.

Jesus used this name in a multitude of statements about himself, like ‘I am the Light of the World’, and ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life.’ All pointing towards what Jesus really thought about himself and accumulating in one brazen statement that hardly left any to the imagination: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me!’ Imagine an influencer claiming something like that today!

If Jesus really existed and made these claims about himself… we have to make a decision about who this Jesus was and what we believe or don't believe about him. The author C.S. Lewis presents us with a clear dilemma: Jesus was either a lunatic, liar, or… Lord (aka God).

“Some people say Jesus was simply a great teacher, a normal man with great influence. However, a normal man saying the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” Lewis specifically blocked the option of people saying about Jesus: ‘I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God’. Lewis said that is the one option Jesus himself did not leave open, because of his clear and undeniable statements of his own divinity.

Lewis, at one point in his life, would have argued that Jesus was a liar at best. Being a staunch atheist he could not believe any of the things Jesus said about himself. But at a certain point, he made a change. A turn towards Christianity declaring: “Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Quite a thing to say, isn’t it?

This is one of the oldest and most important confessions within Christianity. An outrageous, audacious, revolutionary, miraculous thing to declare about one man. Yet, this is what millions of Christians believe: Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God.

What do you think?

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