JESUS before Jesus

As we prepare to walk through the earthly life of “Jesus,” it is important to take a step back and ask the question: Who exactly was “JESUS?” There’s a tendency today to see the earthly, human Jesus as a great teacher, a prophet, someone worth respecting and emulating, like we’d respect Ghandi, or Aristotle or Confucius or some other religious/philosophical leader. Yet, the four gospels (and other passages in both Old and New Testaments) make it clear that JESUS was much more than a very special human being.