Bono: I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity… the point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world… that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death… It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.
Michka: …Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy in my view. Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that fanciful?
Bono: No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammed, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off the hook. Christ says: ‘No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t’ call me teacher…I’m saying: I am God incarnate…’. So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who he said he was – the Messiah – or a complete nutcase… When I look at the cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my $#!+ and everybody else’s. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut?