When I was younger, I loved running home from school and
turning on the TV to watch the Lone Ranger round up the bad guys. At the end of
every show, as the Lone Ranger and Tonto were riding off into the sunset, one
of the townsfolk would ask: “Who was that masked man anyway?”

Throughout the years, people have asked that same question
about Jesus. Many continue searching for the “historical Jesus,” even while
distrusting the only historical sources we have, the biblical witness. I’d
rather take Christ at his word and the words of those whom he personally
entrusted to be his spokesmen and the accounts of eyewitnesses reported by them.
Let’s take a look at just a few of the many ways Jesus indicated just who he
was.

“I
am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even
though they die” (John 11:25).

“I
am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me” (John 14:6).

From the very beginning, it’s clear that Jesus knew who he
was. When Mary and Joseph found him in the Temple, he told him he was in his “Father’s
house,” indicating awareness of his divine sonship. And later when John
baptized him in the river, the heaven’s opened up and the voice of God was
heard saying: “This
is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Of course there is much, much more that Jesus said and did to
fill out and confirm his unique mission and identity. The Jesus of the biblical
witness, by all reliable accounts, is truly the Son of God, the one and only
Messiah who came to this world through the miracle of the incarnation. He came
to bring us back into communion with our Heavenly Father. And we can trust in
him to faithfully continue that work of reconciliation in us, through us and in
the world

I’m Joseph Tkach, Speaking of LIFE.