You cannot merely call Jesus Good. To do that would be to deny that the people of his time had any common sense. There were two clear reactions here.
Those who loved him feared for him and considered that his talk about him being one with God was crazy. They wanted to lock him up, restrain him, as you would a madman.
Those who opposed him said that he was working for Satan. He was not mad, he was bad.
And the crowds made it impossible for him to move around his home town. This was no rabbi, no guru. The rabbinical calling was accepted by the Jews of the day. This was something else, and people were stretching for an answer.
19bThen he went home; 20and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
28“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” — 30for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
31Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 33And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
I work on an acute ward. I deal with the mad, the bad, the despairing, the fearful. Their experiences may be classified by various systems, but no DSM version will capture the subjective difficulties people have when they are psychotic. Nor the problems with delusions. Or the fear, concern and guilt that the family experiences. I have to deal with the bad, the mad, and in this world where materialistic explanations alone are accepted, at times I have those who turn up because of religious experiences.
At that point I call for a chaplain. Fast. One does not want to diagnose madness or melancholia unless one has to: our medications are only partially effective and have adverse effects, and there is no pill or cure for guilt, godly regret, repentance and salvation. Nor should there be.
I know my limits. I’m a Doctor. Godhead has a much higher pay grade, and that is left to the almighty alone.
And those who deny the reality of these experiences not only lack imagination but also miss the empirical data. Unusual experiences are common. But most are not madness.
Which brings us back to the words of Christ. To those who deny that the Holy Spirit can change people he says that they close their eyes, and in blindness damn themselves. And to those who are concerned about him being mad… he said he was doing the will of God. So if we seek the will of God as shown in the life of Christ, we have no need to fear that we will blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
But do not say that Christ was some faith healer or good teacher. Faith healers and good teachers existed in the Maccabean Theocracy of Israel. Jesus was something more, far more.