That was one conclusion offered on the streets recently. How to answer? How about “That’s a sound opinion …?

... There’s only two sensible conclusions from what’s known about Jesus in history. Either he was who he repeatedly said he was: the son of God who paid the price for all our rubbish on the cross so that we can know God. Or he was an outrageous liar – and a dangerous raving lunatic at that. Anything in between, such as he was a nice guy with a sound humanist message, or a prophet, just doesn’t stack up.”

Our new friend nodded. “So you believe Jesus was who he said he was?” he kind of asked, kind of knowing our answer. “Does that mean you’ve had an experience of him?” he continued without waiting for an answer to the previous non-question.

“It does.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Do you mean the first time, or the last time? Because it happens all the time.”

“What?”

“The last time was an hour ago. We spent some time with a young lad who is sleeping rough on the streets. We bought him a meal and chatted with him about where he’s getting help and tried our best to encourage him. During the chat he told us that he had a very sore back. We asked him if we could ask Jesus to touch it for him and he agreed. Jesus touched his back and he felt the pain going away.”

There followed an uneasy silence which was eventually punctuated with “Tell me more.”