Special Sunday Edition
Ethan Barton, Pastoral Resident, Tallowood Baptist Church
According to Dr. R. C. Sproul, everyone is a theologian. Everyone that has ever heard of Jesus has some opinion about Jesus. Even if someone doesn’t care or think about him very often, that means their opinion about Jesus is that he’s not worthwhile to think about. What we think about Jesus matters immensely. And Jesus doesn’t give us much opportunity for a middle ground opinion.
As John’s gospel depicts, people have been wrestling with what to think about Jesus ever since he was first alive. Some think so highly of him that they are following him around and hanging on his every word, and others so negatively that they consider him a dangerous, blasphemous troublemaker. After all, he is in fact stirring up an uproar, and he keeps making the perhaps-blasphemous claim that he is one with God.
So there’s no such thing as a middle-of-the-road opinion on Jesus—or at least, one that makes sense. Either he is a liar or lunatic, or he is the Lord he claims to be. That’s an utterly divisive matter. Notice how his gospel is so good that even the temple guards are entranced, but the Pharisees so stubbornly refuse to believe it that they angrily ridicule everyone who does. It’s funny how desperate and irrational our excuses get the longer we hold on to our immature misconceptions!
Our opinion about Jesus matters; it cannot be pushed aside. Was Jesus just another blasphemer, or is he the Lord of Heaven and Earth, reigning with sovereignty, authority, and perfect love? If we trust God’s Word to us and listen to the Holy Spirit as he leads us, we’ll find that he is most definitely the latter. We’ll acknowledge the full glory of the God-man that accomplished Heaven’s wonderful plan for our salvation and restoration. All of us theologians are called to know this wonderful truth. So what is your opinion about Jesus?
