Joy Behar, 'The View' and that arrogant Jesus
About a billion years ago, when late-night talk shows weren’t leftist rant sessions that showcase the host’s low IQ and moral vacuity, Billy Graham appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. During their discussion, Carson leaned into Graham and said, “You know what, Billy? I bet if Jesus ever came back to earth, we'd do Him in again”.
It sounded provocative at the time. It sounds prescient now.
During a recent episode of "The View," Joy Behar was commenting on the recent dust-up over Trump’s pictorial representation of himself as Christ and said, “Jesus Himself did not run around saying, ‘I'm the Messiah, I'm the Messiah!’”. When corrected by her cohosts and told Jesus did identify Himself in that way, she replied: “No, He did not. Jesus was more modest than this. Listen, I knew Jesus, OK? Jesus was not narcissistic like this guy.”
“When you are the Messiah, it's not narcissism to say it,” a cohost told her. “Yes, it is,” Behar shot back.
Plenty of Jesus’ detractors back in the day thought the same thing and worse. And that’s why they killed Him.
The scandalous Jesus
When his atheist friends asked poet W. H. Auden why he exchanged his atheism for Christianity, he said: “I believe in Jesus because he fulfills none of my dreams.”
Sit with that for a moment.
Then, when pushed further on how Jesus differed from other religious teachers like Buddha, Confucius, and Muhammad, Auden said, “None of the others arouse all sides of my being to cry ‘Crucify Him’.”
That’s the part of Him modern portrayals of Jesus tend to airbrush away.
The standard idea of Jesus in most people’s heads today is one of Him being the last person to cause a stir or say something controversial. But look closer at what He said in general, and especially about Himself, and you see why He warned anyone who would listen: “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me” (Matt. 11:6).
The Greek word for “offense” is skandalizó, from where we get our word “scandal” — a good word to depict Jesus back then. Christ was enough of a scandal in His day to get Himself killed, and that same spirit lives in people like Behar who might greenlight, as Carson said, a call to “do Him in again.”
They don’t like it that He calls us evil (Matt. 7:11), says we aren’t worthy of Him if we don’t hate everyone else by comparison (Luke 14:26), and tells those opposing Him they’re headed for Hell (Matt. 23:33).
They’re aghast that He believes we have sin and has the audacity to say He will forgive us: “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7). If He came into a city today with followers proclaiming Him to be the Messiah, they’d say like those back then: “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples” (Luke 19:39).
They might form the same opinion His family did, who, when told about the things He had said and done, “went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses”” (Mark 3:21). Or they might go so far as to say, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” (John 10:20).
And let’s not get started on someone who claims to be God. When He made that claim, His enemies tried to take Him out on the spot: “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God” (John 10:33).
The truth is, what Jesus says about us and Himself does cause offense and anger to erupt in our hearts just like the Bible says: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” (Rom. 9:33). Even at His birth, Simeon told Mary and Joseph that Jesus would be “a sign to be opposed” (Luke 2:34).
No wonder Scripture states, “He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Is. 53:3), and why Auden says that our fallen hearts cry out for His crucifixion.
That event, though, was a one-and-done thing.
When Billy Graham responded to Carson’s claim that we’d kill Jesus if He came back, Graham became very serious and said that Christ is returning one day, but “The first time He came in love. The next time, He'll come in power — and no one will do Him in!”
It’s easy to critique, dismiss, or redefine Jesus when He’s reduced to a historical figure or a cultural symbol. It’s much harder if His claims are true.
So before brushing Him off as arrogant, narcissistic, or irrelevant, it might be worth reconsidering the possibility that the real issue isn’t His tone or words, but His authority.
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master's in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
