Yesterday I was in the kitchen with my daughters. Felicity was being a bit cranky, so Halle played the part of concerned mom and said, "Aw Lissy, it's ok...I'm here!"Pretty cute (though not quite as cute as this picture of her), but a bit pretentious for anyone but a two year-old to say, right? Think about it: "It's ok, no need to be sad, because I'm here! Why would anyone be sad when I am around?"
Yet these words are awfully similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 9. He was asked why His disciples did not fast, like the disciples of John and the Pharisees. Jesus responded:
"Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."
In other words: "Fasting is an expression of grief and mourning. But I'm here; how could anyone be mourning?" In a two year-old, it's pretty cute. In an adult, it sounds a bit self-absorbed and pompous.
If Jesus were just an ordinary man, it would be pompous. But Jesus is no ordinary man; He was the One in whom there is fullness of joy, the happiest being in the entire universe (Hebrews 1:9).
Those who want to dismiss Jesus as simply a "good moral teacher" must reckon with this: how does a "good man" make this kind of claim about Himself? Either He is much more than a good man, or He is a very wicked man to exalt Himself like this. But simply labeling Him as a good guy just won't do, given the evidence we have of Him.
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