Crazy About Jesus

The philosopher Neitsche, who made the famous announcement that God was dead, is reported to have lived out the final 13 years of his life in an insane asylum. Ironic that the one who had ruled out God later had delusions of being Jesus himself. There it was said his sister sold admission tickets for the public to observe him like a carnival sideshow, but also that his mother sat faithfully by his side for weeks at a time when he would not utter a word. On the rare occasions during those stretches when he would speak, he would recite the Bible verses he had learned as a child who had been the son and grandson of Lutheran ministers. My wife told me recently that during her lengthy stint as a nurse in the ER, she and the other staff had encountered a patient (the word “patient” has roots in a word for suffering, hence “suffering one” and it certainly applies here) who was raving incoherently like a lunatic would until he came upon the topic of spiritual things, when he would clearly articulate the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. That it turned out was his only claim to sanity. The very power of what he was talking about when he arrived at that subject penetrated the tangle of his thoughts and brought momentary sense. Not only did it make sense but it made the kind of sense that impacted some of the staff in an unprecedented way, because of the stark contrast and juxtaposition with the gibberish that preceded and followed it. Hearing those truths about salvation continue to bring health and life no matter how many times we’ve heard them, they continue to edify us as much as any who may hear us proclaim them, or no matter who it is that is uttering them.