The Man Who Won’t Go Away
As a New Testament scholar, William G Johnsson looks into the impact Jesus has had on the planet.
Charles Templeton was once a Christian minister, a close friend and associate of Billy Graham. But he began to doubt the reliability of the Bible and shared his arguments with the young Graham. Graham wrestled with the concerns, but decided the Bible was trustworthy. He went into a Los Angeles evangelistic campaign that catapulted him on a long and remarkable career as a preacher.
Templeton resigned from ministry and devoted his life to attacking belief in God. Lee Strobel, for his recent book T he C ase for F aith , interviewed Templeton. Now in his 80s, Templeton revealed that a picture of a starving child in drought-stricken Africa first led him to doubt God’s existence, and he laid out a compelling case for his rejection of faith.
Late in the interview, Strobel put a question that changed the tenor of the conversation: “And so how do you assess this Jesus?” “It was as if he suddenly felt relaxed and comfortable in talking about an old and dear friend.
His voice, which at times had displayed such a sharp and insistent edge, now took on a melancholy and reflective tone. His guard seemingly down, he spoke in an unhurried pace, almost nostalgically, carefully choosing his words as he talked about Jesus.
“‘He was,’ Templeton began, ‘the greatest human being who has ever lived.
He was a moral genius. His ethical sense was unique. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I’ve ever encountered in my life or in my readings. His commitment was total and led to his own death, much to the detriment of the world.
What could one say about him except that this was a form of greatness?’ “I was taken aback. ‘You sound like you really care about him,’ I said.
“‘Well, yes, he’s the most important thing in my life,’ came his reply. ‘I . . . I . . . I,’ he stuttered, searching for the right word, ‘I know it may sound strange, but I have to say . . . I adore him!’ “I wasn’t sure how to respond. ‘You say that with some emotion,’ I said.
“‘Well, yes. Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know, I learned from Jesus. Yes . . . yes. And tough! Just look at Jesus. He castigated people. He was angry. People don’t think of him that way, but they don’t read the Bible. He had a righteous anger. He cared for the oppressed and exploited. There’s no question that he had the highest moral standard, the least duplicity, the greatest compassion, of any human being in history. There have been many other wonderful people, but Jesus is Jesus.’ “‘And so the world would do well to emulate him?’ “‘Oh, my goodness, yes! I have tried— and try is as far as I can go—to act as I have believed he would act. That doesn’t mean I could read his mind, because one of the most fascinating things about him was that he often did the opposite thing you’d expect—’ “Abruptly, Templeton cut short his thoughts. There was a brief pause, almost as if he was uncertain whether he should continue.
“‘Uh . . . but . . . no,’ he said slowly, ‘he’s the most . . .’ He stopped, then started again. ‘In my view,’ he declared, ‘he is the most important human being who has ever existed.’ “That’s when Templeton uttered the words I never expected to hear from him. ‘And if I may put it this way,’ he said as his voice began to crack, ‘I . . . miss . . . him!’ “With that, tears flooded his eyes. He turned his head and looked downward, raising his left hand to shield his face from me. His shoulders bobbed as he wept.” n After more than half a century of convincing himself and trying to convince others that the Christian faith was nonsense, Templeton had not escaped the influence of Jesus Christ.
A remarkable thing about Jesus is that as the centuries pass they do not lessen His influence. He is the Man who will not go away. In a T ime cover story (December 6, 1999), biblical scholar Reynolds Price asserts: “It would require much exotic calculation . . . to deny that the single most powerful figure—not merely in these two millenniums but in all human history—has been Jesus of Nazareth. Not only is the prevalent system of denoting the years based on an erroneous sixth-century calculation of the date of his birth, but a serious argument can be made that no-one else’s life has proved remotely as powerful and enduring as that of Jesus.”
the influence of Jesus
If Jesus’ enemies thought they could crush the populist movement in His name by putting Him to death, they met with a rude shock. The events surrounding His crucifixion would propel His person and teachings onto a global arena. His followers wouldn’t attempt to cover up or explain away the crucifixion; rather, His cross would become the symbol of the new faith.
The Gospel writers let us in on a curious bit of history: the followers of Jesus were crushed by His death, but the religious authorities remained apprehensive— they feared something might happen, and set a guard to keep Jesus sealed shut forever. But the tomb became the motivating power of the Jesus movement.
Despite the precautions, the body of Jesus vanished. Jesus the crucified appeared to His followers alive, Lord of life and conqueror of the grave.
That Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead is a confession of faith and, if true, is the most amazing event in human experience and the capstone of Christianity.
This, more than any other fact or teaching associated with Jesus, is the reason for His vast and continuing influence.
Not surprisingly, those not of faith dispute His resurrection. Two facts, indisputable and irrefutable, confront the historian and the religious seeker— the empty tomb and the rise of the new religion.
The body disappeared: this is fact.
Enemies of Christianity could have made hay of the new faith if they could have produced Jesus’ remains. They couldn’t. Given that fact, the claims of Jesus’ followers that He had risen from the dead demanded—and demand— consideration.
Out of the ashes of disappointment a new, confident, joyous faith emerged: this is fact. A little band of dispirited commoners became apostles of hope.
Within a generation—by the time of Paul—it had won converts within the imperial court (Philippians 1:13). And still it rolled on—west, and east, and north, and south, unstoppable, dynamic.
Let’s confess it: in His name diabolical deeds have been perpetuated; but Jesus would have been horrified by them. The dark side of the influence of Jesus has not been that of Jesus Himself, but of those who took His name and abused it.
In any religion, where church joins with state, the mix is unholy. In the name of God fearsome deeds—of torture, persecution, cruelty—find justification.
Christianity was not immune from the corrupting influence of power.
But a fair reading of that same history of Christianity must acknowledge that the influence of Jesus has been a continuing power for good. For more than a thousand years He was the central and decisive figure in Western civilisation, inspiring its art, music and literature, focusing its energies and sculpture in cathedrals erected to His glory. The high moral values that flowed from His life—the dignity of each person as a child of God, purity, family, justice, truth, honesty shaped society profoundly.
The influence of Jesus led to noble lives: to men and women who devoted themselves to serve the sick, the maimed, the dying; to courage and bravery in bringing hope and healing to people in darkness; to hospitals and hospices, to schools and universities to improve the lot of humanity.
in our day
The forces that shape our world today—movies, television, music, radio, books—convey the message that life is a “dirty joke,” as Hemingway put it. It is a world without God. Many cling to the trappings of Christianity, but God is less and less a motivating force in their lives.
On the practical level they are atheists.
And intellectuals unleash an aggressive atheism, challenging people to face the consequences of a universe where everything can be accounted for by natural means—a world where we no longer need God.
It is a world without good or evil.
Without God, good and evil, right and wrong, truth and error cease to have meaning. What is right is what is right for me—there can be no absolute standard.
It is a world where Eastern religions replace Christianity. Once Christian missionaries went out from the West; now disciples of Krishna, Buddha and Mohammed propagate their religions in the West. Ideas such as reincarnation and self-deification (I am god!) infiltrate the media and permeate the culture.
Ravi Zacharias sums up the thinking that will dominate the 21st century: “Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true. Morally, you can practise anything, so long as you do not claim that it is a ‘better way.’ Religiously, you can hold to anything, so long as you do not bring Jesus Christ into it. If a spiritual idea is Eastern, it is granted critical immunity; if Western, it is thoroughly criticised ( J esus Among O ther G ods ).
But so long as men and women find in Him peace, joy, hope and strength for their day-by-day lives, Jesus’ influence will never wane. So long as multitudes rise up and declare that through Him and in Him they find power for new and better living—power that is strong enough to break the chains of debasing and debilitating habits—the world that would shrug Him off or curse Him away will have to deal with Jesus.
Without Jesus, we’re alone in a vast, cold universe. Without Jesus, we’re meaningless creatures in a meaningless existence. Without Jesus, kindness, purity, nobility, truth, justice and even love have no moral value, because the universe is amoral. Without Jesus, life now is all there is—we come around once, and then it’s all over.
But if Jesus is alive, we are not alone.
God has come close, He is with us. We are special, valued, loved with an everlasting love that empties heaven. We have dignity because we are sons and daughters of the King who plans for us an eternal future in His presence. Life throbs with purpose as we follow in the footsteps of the Man of Galilee, carrying onward His loving ministry of hope, healing, forgiveness and new life.
Jesus won’t go away. People can try to argue that He never existed, that the whole story is a myth, a legend. When that fails, they can deny that we have reliable sources and so deny His miracles and resurrection.
When the Gospels are shown to withstand scrutiny, they can deny that Jesus was anything more than a man, or thought of Himself so. When they are forced to accept that He made amazing claims about Himself and His relationship to God, their final tack is to reason that He was crazy.
Would to God that the world had more such crazy people! n Jesus won’t go away. After all the scholarship, the books, the articles, the songs, the plays, the movies, He is still alive. Like those in His own time, people today give various answers when He asks, “Who do they say I am?” But then He turns the question around, speaking to us with existential force: “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15).
Adapted, with permission, from The Essential Jesus.
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