What is so special about Jesus?

A few days ago, while driving home from work, I saw a roadside advertisement promoting the latest editorial in a newspaper. The poster read: "Mandela is Jesus". At first I was shocked by this statement. How can anyone say such a thing! Mandela is a special person, but can he be compared or equated with Jesus? However, this poster got me thinking. Aside from Mandela, many special people have lived on this earth. In the last 100 years alone there have been people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, who, like Jesus, have experienced injustice and overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles and even achieved international fame. Each of them suffered in their own way. They were beaten, imprisoned, threatened and intimidated, and even killed. In the cases of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., both paid with their own lives. So what makes Jesus so special? Why do more than two billion Christians worship him?

Jesus was without sin

Neither Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., nor Nelson Mandela ever claimed to be sinless. Yet in the New Testament many testify that Jesus longs for an intimate relationship with us; that no other man makes or can verse the fact that Jesus was sinless. In 1. Petrus 2,22  we can read: "he who sinned not, and in whose mouth no deceit was found" and in Hebrews 4,15 "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but who was tempted in everything as we are, yet without sin." Jesus was perfect and, unlike Mandela and the others, had never sinned.

Jesus claimed to be God

Neither Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., or Nelson Mandela ever claimed to be God, but Jesus did just that. In John 10,30 it says, "I and the Father are one.", referring to God Himself. Such a statement is very bold, and yet Jesus made it. For this reason the Jews wanted to crucify him.

There have been other people in history, such as Augustus Caesar and King Nebuchadnezzar, who claimed to be divine. But their rule was not characterized by peace, love and good nature towards people, but was characterized by oppression, malice and greed for power. In extreme contrast to this, there is the discipleship of Jesus, which does not seek to make him famous, rich and powerful, but only to bring the love of God and the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to people.

Confirmed by miracles and prophecies

In the Acts of the Apostles 2,22-23 the apostle writes the following about Pentecost: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, identified by God among you by deeds and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – You nailed this man, who was put there by the decree and providence of God, to the cross by the hands of the Gentiles and killed him.” Peter is speaking here to the people who still knew Jesus personally. They saw the miracles he performed and some of them were probably even there when he raised Lazarus from the dead, fed 5000 men (not including women and children), cast out evil spirits and healed the sick and lame. Many people also witnessed and witnessed his resurrection. He wasn't just any man. He not only spoke, but acted on what he said. Despite today's modern technology, no one can replicate the miracles that Jesus performed. No one today can turn water into wine, raise people from the dead, and multiply food. While all of these things are very impressive, the fact that I find most impressive about the miracles that Jesus performed is that over 700 prophecies had to be fulfilled by the Messiah and Jesus fulfilled every one of them. These prophecies were made more than a thousand years before his birth. To really understand how special it is that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies, one has only to look at the statistical possibility of anyone fulfilling all of these prophecies. If we were to look at the possibility of any person fulfilling the most significant 300 prophecies about Jesus, the probability would be about 1 in 10; (A one followed by 157 zeros). The chances that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies just by chance are so vanishingly small that it seems impossible. The only explanation of how Jesus was able to fulfill all of these prophecies is that he himself is God and so directed events.

Jesus longs for an intimate relationship with us humans

like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mandela had many followers, but it was impossible for an ordinary person to have a relationship with them. Jesus, on the other hand, invites us to a personal relationship with him. In John 17,20-23 he prays the following words: "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they must also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. And I gave them the glory that you gave me, that they might be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they might be perfectly one, and that the world might know that you sent me and love them how you love me."

Mandela doesn't know, since I exist, neither can he. After all, he's only human. Yet each of us has access to a relationship with Jesus. You can share your deepest desires, joys, fears and worries with him. They are not a burden to him and he will not be too tired or too busy to listen to them. Jesus is more than any significant person who has ever lived because he was not only human but also God.

Summary

While at the beginning of this article it looked like Mandela could be compared to Jesus, we find that it is impossible. We can compare Mandela to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., but not to Jesus, because that is how we would compare a drop of water to an ocean. You can't compare anyone to Jesus because nobody is like him. Because nobody is as special as him.

by Shaun de Greeff


pdfWhat is so special about Jesus?