CATEGORY:RELIGION --------------------- By Lyndon St.Cyr Inside Grenada contributor Monday February 05,2007 IT was Ravi Zacharias who said: Jesus Christ continually contradicts us in the way we experience ourselves as alive and He compels us to radically redefine what we mean by life. He encounters us in the way he encounters the disciples on Easter Sunday. They were the ones marked out for death. Those who had survived him were really the dead. He, the dead, was really the living. The quotation begs the following questions: What was it about Jesus that made such an impact on people? Was he particularly unique or just another religious teacher among many? We can arrive at the answers to these questions from an historical/academic standpoint seeing how the New Testament and its originating scrolls have withstood the test of time and scrutiny. Or we can take it from a missionary perspective, seeing how many parts of the world have been conquered by the message of Christ. In this article, however, let’s look at the very person of Christ. In the 1960s song, Who Will Answer, Ed Ames wrote: “From the canyons of the mind we wander on and stumble blind Way through the often tangled maze of starless nights and sunless days Hoping for some kind of clue A road to lead us to the truth But who will answer? Is our hope in walnut shells worn round the neck with temple bells Or deep within some cloistered walls where hooded figures pray in shawls Or high upon some dusty shelves or in the stars or in ourselves Who will answer? CHORUS: If the soul is darkened by a fear it cannot name If the mind is baffled when the rules don’t fit the game Who will answer? Who will answer? Who will answer? Observe the specific nature of the question. The writer seeks not some abstract thing or some dogma. He is not looking for some system to give allegiance to but he personifies the source of his answer. It’s as if he is saying, “Who has the right to be the answer to the many questions that boggle my mind?” In fact the name of Christ is unique since he is the one who claimed, in Himself, to be the sum and substance of the answer. Not just in what he taught or how he behaved but in Himself. Jesus is the central feature of his own message as he proclaims “BEFORE Abraham was, I AM.” What kind of statement is this? Is he claiming to be infinite? Of course He is! You see, Christ is the consummate embodiment of truth to the extent that anything, dogma or attitude, that contradicts Him must be false. This is what causes Christ to stand out so conspicuously, that is, his eternal perspective. He is able to fuse the past, present and future and bring meaning to any life. Will you trust Him? Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart!