Jesus' claim as God (Part 1)

[sub-labels: Christian and Catholic Faith, Jesus as God]

This is part of the "Jesus as God" series in the R+R (reactions+reflections) blog. It seeks to identify passages in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, wherein Jesus himself is either directly or indirectly claiming to be God, or one with the Father, or where other personages identify him as our "Lord." The collection of these passages may establish a fundamental tenet of the Christian and Catholic faith.*

One way of showing how Jesus is God is by asking the question: is Jesus a Liar, a Lunatic, or our Lord? Is he a Liar; that is, he knows he is not God and yet he claims to be God and speaks and acts like he is God? Or is he a Lunatic; that is, he clearly believes he is God and is totally out of his mind to believe so? If he is not lying and he is sane, then is he for real, is he really the Lord?**

The Bible translation from which these passages are taken from is primarily the New American Version, or the New Revised Standard Version.***

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This reaction+reflection is taken from the Gospel readings during Thursday's and Friday's Catholic mass (May 2 & 3, 2007), which is from John 14:1-14.

In this passage, Jesus says the following:

• "You have faith in God; have faith also in me."
• "In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places... if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be."
  
• "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
  
• "No one comes to the Father except through me."
• "If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
• "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me? How can you say 'Show us the Father'?" in response to Philip asking him, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
• "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"
• "The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves."
• "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father."
• "And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it."
  

In the second to the last item above, Jesus also speaks about the "works" that he does. These are obviously the miracles he has performed sometimes with thousands as witness. The question might be, is fulfilling miracles a sign of being God? It could be that Jesus himself was just simply calling out God's name so that these miracles are realized.

Jesus asks his disciples to just simply believe and have faith in him, because he says he is who he says he is, even without seeing the miracles he has performed. This is somewhat a call to all of us who has lived after Jesus' time, to all of us who has not seen Jesus himself in the flesh. He asks us to just believe in him, to believe in Jesus, that he is in the Father and that God the Father is in him, and because it is him; it is Jesus.

If they can't do that, if we can't do that, to just simply believe in him because he asks us to believe in him, then we should all just look at the many miracles he has performed. The list is long, and these shall be defined in a different series (i.e. the "Jesus' miracles" series).

And then Jesus tells his disciples - including us - that we all could perform these miracles if only we ask it in Jesus' name.

Questions you can ask for your own reaction+reflection are:

• Why did Jesus say these things? Who is Jesus Christ? Is he a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord?
• Have I called upon Jesus' name in prayer for a certain miracle, whether for myself or for others? What happened?
• Have I read enough about the Bible, its origins, and its many different versions? Is it accurate? Is the translation accurate? How do I look at the Bible?
  
• Have I read enough in the Bible, including the Old Testament? Have I identified passages there that might refer to Jesus as the Messiah?
  

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I welcome all reactions, comments, suggestions, corrections, and critiques, good or bad. Please post them here, or contact me by email.

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NOTES:
* Later on whether in this series or in another series, a reaction+reflection on why Catholics and some Christian groups alike refer to the Bible as truth, and how it is not the only truth, shall be discussed.
** Note that in earlier versions of the Bible and also in other Christian writings, pronouns referring to God and Jesus are capitalized: e.g. "He", or "Him." However, in more recent publications of the Bible and more recent Christian writings, this is deemed as not necessary anymore. Of course, it is also not wrong to still use the capitalized pronouns. The words Lord and God are still capitalized when referring to the Lord, our God.
*** Other translations/versions of the Bible are thought to be written such that they expressly do not show Jesus to be God, or some other commonly held dogma in Christian and Catholic faith. A reaction+reflection on this issue shall perhaps be posted in the future.