Jesus' claims about himself were astounding: He was both God and Saviour of Man.
What should we make of such claims? Perhaps he was demon possessed (John 8:48, John 8:52) or a lunatic (John 10:19-21)? But could a lunatic amass such a following as Jesus did (John 8:30, John 10:42)? His enemies tried to argue that he was no friend of their faith (John 9:16). Those he healed thought that he was a prophet (John 9:17). Others who were awaiting the fulfillment of prophecy wondered if he was the Messiah (John 10:24). Religious fanatics tried to stone him for blasphemy (John 8:59, John 10:31-33).
As expected, the reactions to Jesus' claims were extreme. People either believed his divinity (as unbelievable as it sounds) or they thought he was crazy and tried to kill him.
There is a somewhat popular view of who Jesus was: He was merely a good man and moral teacher (John 7:12). This view seems to ignore the teachings of the man and his life's mission. To this, C. S. Lewis correctly retorts:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity