Who is Jesus?

The church I serve is coordinating with the local Methodist church for Vacation Bible School. This was a collaboration that was begun last year and was quite successful. A couple, Ross & Carolyn Clayton, from our church were the classroom storytellers. They did such a wonderful job that they were "asked" to return again this year.

Today I watched Ross tell the story of Peter answering Jesus' question, "But, who do you say I am?" The story time is a 15-20 minute monologue that has the children riveting their eyes and ears on him. He is a master, our own version of Garrison Keillor.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Just who DO you think Jesus is? The answer to that question determines so much of what you do in life and how you view life itself. There can be no flippant answer. To give such an answer sets our life on its own unique course, adhering to the principles we link to that answer.

"Jesus was a good teacher." If that is the extent of your belief in Jesus, that is how you will relate to him. You will take his teachings as proverbs and exhortations on how you could live your life in a more satisfying way. This also means that you can ignore Jesus teaching with minimal consequences, just like you ignored so many of your teachers in school. Oh, your life may not be as satisfying, but at least you won't be going to hell!

However, if Jesus is who he claims to be, if Jesus has done something unique in history, if Jesus has shown himself to be the true and divine Son of God, if he has done something that requires our allegiance and submission, if he has indeed brought the possibility of light where before there was only darkness, then to deny that act, to say that the events of his life were anything else is to deny the light and remain in the darkness. It does indeed raise the possibility that our choice of who Jesus is to us will have significant and eternal consequences.

It kind of makes this question the most important one you will ever answer in your life, doesn't it?