Great Moral Teacher?
Almost all scholars acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher.
In fact, his brilliant insight into human morality is an accomplishment
recognized even by those of other religions. In his book Jesus
of Nazareth, Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner wrote, “It
is universally admitted … that Christ taught the purest
and sublimest ethics … which throws the moral precepts and
maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade.”1
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has been called the most superlative
teaching of human ethics ever uttered by an individual. In fact,
much of what we know today as “equal rights” actually
is the result of Jesus’ teaching. Historian Will Durant
said of Jesus that “he lived and struggled unremittingly
for ‘equal rights’; in modern times he would have
been sent to Siberia. ‘He that is greatest among you, let
him be your servant’—this is the inversion of all
political wisdom, of all sanity.”2
Some have tried to separate Jesus’ teaching on ethics from
his claims about himself, believing that he was simply a great
man who taught lofty moral principles. This was the approach of
one of America’s Founding Fathers.
President Thomas Jefferson, ever the enlightened rationalist, sat down in the White House with two identical copies of the New Testament, a straight-edge razor, and a sheaf of octavo-size paper. Over the course of a few nights, he made quick work of cutting and pasting his own Bible, a slim volume he called “The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth.” After slicing away every passage that suggested Jesus’ divine nature, Jefferson had a Jesus who was no more and no less than a good, ethical guide.3
Ironically, Jefferson’s memorable words in
the Declaration of Independence were rooted in Jesus’ teaching
that each person is of immense and equal importance to God, regardless
of sex, race, or social status. The famous document sets forth,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights …”
But the question Jefferson never addressed is: how could Jesus
have been a great moral leader if he lied about being God? So
perhaps he wasn’t really moral after all, but his motive
was to begin a great religion. Let’s see if that explains
Jesus’ greatness.
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