JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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Within a few centuries Jesus had become "Lord" of the very empire which crucified Him!
He has dominated the culture of the West since that time. Even the Enlightenment could not
obliterate His influence. Religion, art, music, architecture, education and politics have all been
either formed or informed by His towering cultural status. Thus He has to be reckoned with. He
simply cannot be ignored!
In the book, Christ the Tiger, Thomas Howard shows powerfully how often people, even
professing Christians, manage to construct a Jesus who will fit their own needs and
preconceptions. Howard's point is that people do not want to face the actual Jesus, who is no
"tame kitty but a troublesome tiger."3
This tendency to create a Jesus we would like is a perennial temptation. Since the figure
of Jesus is too large to be ignored by mankind, He has instead been shaped into the kind of
person to which we can best relate. As C. Stephen Evans has pointed out in his book, The Quest
for Faith, too often He has become "the patron saint of whatever cause we feel most deeply
about."4
But who is this Jesus Christ whom people are to believe in and follow? Who He is has
always been a perplexing issue for mankind. Intellectual honesty demands that we seek to find
out, as much as possible, who the actual Jesus of Nazareth is.
When Jesus healed the helpless paralytic and extended forgiveness to him the scribes and
the Pharisees asked, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy?" (Lk 5:20-21)
When Jesus calmed the storm on the sea of Galilee the terrified disciples asked each
other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him?" (Mk 4:41)
When those who shared dinner with Him heard Jesus grant pardon to a prostitute they
were amazed and said among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" (Lk 7:49)
When Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, heard about the ministry of Jesus he was perplexed
and said, "I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?" (9:9)
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey "the whole city was stirred and asked,
"Who is this?" (Mt 21:10)
This question of who Jesus is—is the key question Jesus posed to the Pharisees of His
day and the question which continues to fascinate, haunt and perplex people of every generation
right to this day. The perennial question is:
"What do you think about the Christ?
Whose Son is He?" (22:42).