WHO IS JESUS?

"Jesus asks the disciples, 'Who do you say I am?'" (Matthew 16:15)

We observe that the teaching of our Lord Himself, in which there is no imperfection, is not given in that cut-and-dried, fool-proof, systematic fashion we might have expected or desired.  He wrote no book.  We have only reported sayings, most of them uttered in answer to questions, shaped in some degree by their context.  And when we have collected them all, we cannot reduce them to a system.  He preaches but He does not lecture.  He uses paradox, proverb, exaggeration, parable, irony, even (I mean no irreverence) the 'wisecrack.'  He utters maxims, which, like popular proverbs, if rigorously taken, may seem to contradict one another.  His teaching therefore, cannot be grasped by the intellect alone, cannot be 'got up' as if it were a 'subject'.  If we try to do that with it, we shall find Him the most elusive of teachers.  He will not be, in the way we want, 'pinned down.'  The attempt is (again I mean no irreverence) like trying to bottle a sunbeam."

-- C. S. Lewis


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