JESUS’ MESSIAH COMPLEX: LIAR, LUNATIC OR LORD

Reflections on the Fourth Sunday of Easter: Acts 13:14, 43-52, Revelation 7:9, 14b-17, John 10:27-30

Standing before a Jewish crowd, Jesus declares in a steady and clear voice, “I and the Father are one”. To us, centuries later, this declaration is a profound theological statement and the core of Christian belief. To his first-century Jewish audience, however, Jesus’ claim must have been nothing short of scandalous. Why? Monotheism is a crucial tenet of Judaism rooted in the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Any claim contrary to the ‘unique and one God’ was audacious, even blasphemous. So when Jesus declared, “I and the Father are one”, they didn’t just hear a bold claim about his unity with God in some abstract sense.

In his claim to divinity and equality with God, his audience discerned a seismic rupture of their worldview; a threat to their understanding of God’s singularity; and a direct blasphemous violation of the commandment against idolatry. Their immediate reaction is understandable, “The Jews took up stones again to stone him” (10:31). They add, “We are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human, are making yourself God” (10:33). This accusation will also echo during his trial. “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” (John 19:7). They must have thought that Jesus suffered from an extreme case of what we now call the ‘messiah complex’, a psychological state marked by delusional self-importance and grandeur. Who goes around claiming, “I and the Father are one”?

So, did Jesus suffer from the Messiah complex? How does one make sense of his claim? British author and scholar C.S. Lewis, in his brilliant work Mere Christianity, famously argued that Jesus’ bold claim forces a choice: He is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. There is no middle ground. If Jesus knowingly claimed to be one with God and was not, then He was a deliberate liar and deceiver. If He genuinely believed He was God but was mistaken, He would be a lunatic. Lewis argues from the gospels that the life and teachings of Jesus prove that he is neither a liar nor a lunatic.

To Lewis, Jesus’ simplicity, sacrifice, option for the poor, profound teaching, intelligence, compassion, ability to inspire people, remarkable coherence between his teaching and action, and commitment to truth testify to his honesty and intelligence. So, if Jesus is neither a liar nor a lunatic, we are left with only one other option: he is Lord. His claim ‘I and the Father are one’ is then neither the play of a fraud nor the rant of a madman. It is the revelation of a truth so profound that it redefines our understanding of God and reality. He was not merely a prophet, nor a sage, but God incarnate. The claim of oneness with the Father is not a symptom of his “Messiah complex,” but the revelation that he is the Messiah—the divine Son of God, revealing Himself to humanity.

“I and the Father are one” isn’t just Jesus’ statement about himself. It is a kerygma, a proclamation rooted in the post-resurrection experience of the disciples. Let’s not forget that John writes his gospel in the light of his Easter experience. John, writing decades later, isn’t merely recording a memory; he’s testifying to a reality the early church lived. Jesus’ life, ministry, passion, death, and resurrection enabled the disciples to see who Jesus truly is and was. The light of Easter helped them understand Jesus and the significance of his miracles and teachings in a different light. Meeting the Risen Lord, touching his wounds, and receiving the Holy Spirit, the disciples now realise that “Jesus and the Father are one”.

The disciples didn’t invent this unity - they encountered it. Jesus’ oneness with the Father became the template for their unity with him and each other. This isn’t about a messianic ego trip; it’s about a relationship so intimate that it transforms those who witness it. Acts 4:32 tells us, “All the believers were one in heart and mind.” This unity and oneness crosses the boundaries of ‘Jews vs Gentiles’ in the first reading when Paul and Barnabas declare courageously, “We now turn to the Gentiles”. John, in the second reading, again proclaims a vision where “a great multitude from every nation, race, people, and tongue” stood before the Lamb, “who will shepherd” us to a future where there will be “no hunger or thirst, heat or tears”. We are the sheep entrusted by the Father to the care of our ‘Shepherd-Messiah’.

The liturgy invites us to re-discover this ‘oneness’, which isn’t a delusional rant of a lunatic or the deliberate ploy of a liar, but the Lord’s revealed truth of our fundamental ‘unity’ with God and each other.