I AM JESUS CHRIST

“I am Jesus Christ…I am Jesus Christ,” he shouted. Nobody in the mental hospital could save him from his illusion. When a psychiatrist from America visited the hospital, this patient was taken to him. He kindly consented to help the patient. He asked the man to put his arms out to the side. The therapist measured the man’s arms from fingertip to fingertip. He also measured the man from head to foot. The therapist then left the room and came back with a hammer, two pieces of wood and some nails.

Seeing all these, the patient got upset and anxious. “What are you doing?” he asked the Psychiatrist.

“You are Jesus Christ, aren’t you?” the therapist asked.

“Yes,” the Patient replied.

“Well,” he said. Then he put two pieces of wood in the form of a cross and started to nail them together. “Do you understand what I am doing?” the therapist asked the patient.

“No“, the patient replied.

“I am going to crucify you. If you are Jesus, then you have to die on the cross”, the Psychiatrist said.

“Are you crazy? I am not Jesus Christ”, the man replied and ran away.

People like to follow the ‘glorified Christ’. They like to see Jesus without the cross. This is not anything new. When Jesus spoke about his passion and death, Peter, intervened and said, “God, forbid it, Lord. That must never happen to you.” Jesus became Christ by obedience unto death. He became the Messiah by suffering and dying on the cross.

Any commitment to Jesus without understanding this messianic secret is peripheral as it does not help him or her to defend Jesus and his values in the hour of trial and tribulations. Like the mental patient, he will deny his Christian identity. A disciple is one who follows of the suffering Messiah. Readiness to suffer for values is the mark of Christian identity.