Jesus is an egomaniac

In Piper's first talk at Worship God 09 last week, he mentioned these words from Jesus in Matthew 10:

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

As I listened to Piper, I was overwhelmed by this thought: Could anyone else on the planet get away with saying something like this, and actually be admired and adored by millions of people?

Imagine Oprah Winfrey saying on her show: If you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of me. Or Barack Obama, or Michael Jordan, or Madonna, or anyone. They would be laughed at. And if they persisted to the point that people actually thought they were serious, they'd be hated, mocked and ridiculed.

Yet Jesus said just this: If you don't love me more than everything and everyone, you are an evil person who is unworthy of being in my presence. Yet here we are, a couple of thousand years after anyone has seen Him on earth, and millions of people around the world adore Him and sing of how great and beautiful and loving He is every day.

Could this be an indication that Jesus is somebody extraordinary? Someone a little more impressive than just 'a good man'? Someone worth expending all your energies to get to know?

There is no one like Jesus!

(Clarification: I don't really believe Jesus is an egomaniac; I am simply saying that based on a lot of what He said, it seems like He was an egomaniac)