Many of the more liberal persuasion see Jesus as a good teacher: the equivelant of a prophet, a philosopher and a guru. Not the case. He claimed to be God.
And the Pharisees called him crazy.
46Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.”
48The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge. 51Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” 52The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ 53Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” 54Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ 55though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. 56Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Now, the consequence of this conversation was that the Pharisees were going to stone him (throw rocks at him until he died) on the spot.
You cannot get away with just saying Jesus was a good man. To do that, you have to edit his very words. In that case, you are not talking about Jesus, but your image of Jesus. You either have to say he was mad, possessed, or whom he said he was.
Because he clearly claims here to be God. I am in Hebrew — is the name God gave himself. The name now observant Jew will write. Out of respect.
Jesus is not tame. He is not respectful of traditions. He is not tame. And he trampled all over the models of God and the Law that the Pharisees had.
So he… is not merely a good man. He is either more of this, or he is at best mad, and at worse evil. His claim is that if you know him, you will know he is God.
PS. Yes, I know this an argument from C S Lewis.