In spite of the increasingly unpopular cultural view of Christianity (and religion in general), it seems the reputation of its founder, Jesus, has somewhat remained relatively unscathed. Remarkably, more and more people who don’t identify as Christian hold the person of Jesus in high esteem. I have agnostic and atheist friends who think of Jesus as an inspiring figure and a great person with many traits worthy of emulation.
This is not a recent development though, as notable figures in the past were also favourably disposed to Jesus. Among them are luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi, a Hinduist, who thought “Jesus was one of the greatest teachers of mankind” and Albert Einstein, an agnostic, who was “enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.” He further added: “Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful… No man can read the gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word.”
To put it succinctly, many people are fans of Jesus. Given this fact, I wondered why it doesn’t translate more often to a change of religious belief. I thought, “it should be an easy thing to adopt a new system of value and beliefs especially when you’re a fan of its progenitor.” It didn’t take me long to see the error in my thinking when I applied the same logic to another aspect of my life: My love for football. You see, I’m a huge fan of Manchester United (Man Utd for short). I think they are the greatest football team on earth and I’m very proud and vocal about my affinity for the club sometimes to the irritation of my friends who support rival teams (Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Barcelona). Confession: I do enjoy seeing the look on their faces when my team wins against theirs.
Being a fan of Man Utd I realize, is possible and comfortable for three main reasons. Firstly, I get to choose and define what I see and like about them and probably turn a blind eye to the not so pleasant parts. I don’t need to have a good or rational reason for supporting the club. Secondly, I am neither required nor obliged under any circumstance to do anything for the club. I attend or watch games at my own volition, buy club merchandise when I feel like, and support them in general at my own convenience. Finally, the subjectivity of being a fan of Man Utd means I don’t have to be concerned about those who don’t think that the club is not the greatest in the world.
In the same way, being a fan of Jesus is also contingent upon these three 
similar reasons. Related to the first, we cherry-pick aspects of the life and teachings of Jesus that we like while ignoring or downplaying the parts that don’t sit well with us. For example, many superficially adore Jesus’s teaching on love but aren’t willing to engage with what that love entails (i.e. denying ourselves of some of our innate desires). It’s rather more comfortable to identify with what looks good or sounds nice about someone than to delve deeper into their lives.
Secondly, Jesus fans don’t feel a sense of obligation to submit themselves to Jesus. In the eyes of many, their ‘fanship’ only extends to their view of him as an icon, wise teacher, or a “great guy”. Just as a Kim Kardashian fan might decide to emulate her idol’s style of fashion, a Jesus fan can do likewise in what he chooses to emulate in the life of Jesus at his own volition. This in effect becomes a great incentive for those unwilling to commit any further than they feel comfortable with, to do so.
As the third reason implies, the subjectivity of being a fan of Jesus suggests that our thoughts and feelings about Jesus is of relatively little importance as it is nothing more than a collection of subjective opinions. Thus, there is no real impetus to make others see the value of changing their minds about Jesus in the same way that we would regarding issues like racism, equality and rights.
There are, however, drawbacks to this position, the core of which, centres around who Jesus was and its resultant implications. The main problem with the dominant fan view of Jesus as a great moral teacher is that it doesn’t hold up when weighed against the claims Jesus made about himself. Jesus never considered himself to be just a sage with lots of wisdom to offer us for life. He claimed to be much more; He claimed to be the incarnate image of God and demanded (not forcefully) that we give up everything to follow him no matter what it would cost. That doesn’t sound like someone who was content with just being admired by the folks. It was an explosive claim that got him in trouble with the religious and political leaders of his day. This crucial factor has significant ramifications for Jesus fans to consider.
Firstly, Jesus didn’t consider himself to be giving words of wisdom from which we could pick our favourite lines. He spoke from a position of authority which means all his teachings carried equal weight and were to be holistically taken together. Secondly, in relation to his claims to divinity, we are presented with the choice of either submitting to him or not. There isn’t really a middle ground unfortunately. So being a fan just wouldn’t cut it. Thirdly, his claim to be revealing objective moral truths and values means we have a prerogative to make it a priority to help people see the truth as well (again, not forcefully).
To be clear, I’m not in any way suggesting that being a fan of Jesus is impossible or inappropriate. My point is that the claims the Jesus of the bible made about himself and the things he did doesn’t leave us with the real option of being a fan or merely considering him to be a great human teacher. As writers like John Duncan, Watchman Nee, C.S. Lewis, William Craig and many others have pointed out, Jesus, based on what he proclaimed about himself, was either;
- a legend that never existed in the first place to begin with; or
- a liar for making false claims about himself; or
- a lunatic to believe or think he was divine; or
- Lord
In his book, Cold-Case Christianity, former atheist and award winning cold-case homicidal detective, J. Warner Wallace, chronicled his journey using the impressive array of investigative tools that aided his distinguished career to answer this puzzle. His findings led him to conclude that Jesus was indeed Lord; a decision that would change his life forever.
Like Wallace and many others including myself who have taken the step to surrender our lives and follow (not blindly) Jesus, I invite you to open-mindedly and determinedly consider the claims of Jesus and decide for yourself which of the “L”s He is to you. To paraphrase the words of C. S. Lewis about Jesus,
“[Jesus], if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing [He] cannot be is moderately important.”
