The other day I was driving home from work and noticed a newspaper poster advertising one of the main articles for that day.
The poster read Mandela compared to Jesus. At first the statement shocked me. How could someone say something like that? Lets face it, Mandela is an exceptional person, but would it be accurate to compare him with Jesus?
The poster title got me thinking though. Besides Mandela, there have been many great men that have walked the earth. In the last 100 years alone men like Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr as well as Nelson Mandela have, just like Jesus, taken on great injustices, faced what seemed were insurmountable odds and overcome them to become internationally renowned.
They all suffered for their respective causes, were beaten, imprisoned, endured threats and intimidation, and faced death on many occasions. In the case of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr, they both paid the ultimate price by being assassinated. So what then makes Jesus so special? Why do more than two billion Christians worship him?
JESUS WAS WITHOUT SIN
Neither Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr nor Nelson Mandela ever claimed to never have sinned. Yet the new testament is filled with verses that attest to the fact the Jesus never sinned. In 1 Peter 2:22 for example we read He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth and in Hebrews 4:15 we read For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus was perfect in every way and unlike Mandela and the others, he never sinned.
JESUS CLAIMED TO BE GOD
Neither Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr nor Nelson Mandela ever claimed to be God, but Jesus did. In John 10:30 Jesus said I and the Father are one, referring to God the Father. That is a pretty bold claim for anyone to make, yet Jesus did. It was for that reason that the Jews wanted to crucify him.
Throughout history others like Augustus Caeser and King Nebuchadnezzar also claimed to be divine, but their rule was not marked with peace, love and goodwill to all men, but rather with oppression, cruelty and a thirst for power. In stark contrast, Jesus ministry did not seek to make him rich, famous, or powerful, but rather to share the love of God with men and to bring the good news of salvation to all.
JESUS WAS ACCREDITED BY MIRACLES, WONDERS AND PROPHECies
In Acts 2:22-23 the Apostle Peter says the following on Pentecost: People of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know…
Here Peter was addressing a crowd of people who had firsthand knowledge of Jesus. They saw the wonders and the miracles that he performed and some of them were probably there when he raised Lazarus, fed the 5000, cast out demons and healed the sick and the lame. Many people also witnessed Jesus after his resurrection. This was not just any man. He not only talked the talk, but walked the walk as well. Even with the technology we have today no one can duplicate the miracles that Jesus performed. No one today can turn water into wine instantly, resurrect the dead by command and multiply food at a whim.
Although this is all impressive, the most impressive thing for me about the miracles and wonders associated with Jesus is that there were about 700 prophesies that had to be fulfilled by the Messiah and that Jesus matched them all. These prophesies were made more than a thousand years before his birth.
To truly understand how remarkable it is that Jesus fulfilled these prophesies, all one has to do is look at the odds of any person matching this prophetic fingerprint. If we only looked at the odds for a random person fulfilling the top 300 prophesies concerning Jesus, we get an astonishing odds of 10 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion to one (10 157:1) . By way of comparison if we were to count the number of seconds since the estimated beginning of the universe (13.77 billion years) we would get to a figure of 4.34 17 or 4.34 trillion hundred thousand seconds. See the difference. The odds that Jesus fitted the prophetic fingerprint purely by accident are so small as to be impossible. The only way that Jesus matched all those prophesies was because he was God, and orchestrated the events to suit his will.
JESUS DESIRES AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU
People like Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr and Mandela have many people that follow them, but for the average person having any sort of relationship with them is impossible. Jesus on the other hand invites us to have an intimate personal relationship with him. In John 17:20-23 Jesus is praying to God and says the following: …I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one I in them and you in meso that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Mandela does not know of my existence, and who can blame him, he is only a man. All of us however have access to Jesus. You can share your deepest hopes, joys, fears and troubles with him. You are not a burden to him and he will never be too tired or too sick or to busy to listen to you. Jesus offers more than any great human can because he is more than just a human, he is God as well.
CONCLUSION
Although at the beginning of this article it might have looked as if we could compare Nelson Mandela to Jesus, we find that ultimately we cant. We can compare Mandela with Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr, but not to Jesus. That would be like trying to compare one drop of water with the Atlantic Ocean. There is just no comparison. The reality is that no one comes close to Jesus, period.