Why should we believe the man written of, named Jesus? He was a madman, a liar, or He never said those things at all. He contradicts Himself, and besides, who believes in miracles anymore — really? Yet, there is something so compelling to his message: blessed be the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; what profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?; love your neighbor as yourself. It makes you need to believe in Him, if you follow the words to their logical conclusions. For it all rests on whether He was sent from God — and if He was, the Kingdom of Heaven that He speaks about is so inextricably tied to His persona, in so much that He says, that you must also accept that He is also divine. If He was not, the pervasiveness of the Kingdom means you cannot believe anything He says at all — for in more ways than one, the medium is the message: He is the Word, incarnate.

Look at his prayers, and those of any saint: the ones of Christ speak with such authority, such a boom of voice: they are like no other. That was why they lay hold of his life, after all, that He said He was the Son of God, who comes with authority even to forgive one’s sins. It would be blasphemy coming from anyone who was not living such a life full through, and they who crucified him called it blasphemy because they understood not that He was doing just that, leading a blameless, healing, miraculous life. If you do not believe and think it is impossible rationalization to set one’s heart in that path to follow the Nazarene, understand that you need not give up logic, nor reason. If you do not want to believe, that is one thing, but never think that you cannot believe. Even that He defeated death: this is telling us what love can really do. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16] Amen.