Jesus: Messiah, or Nutcase?

Excerpt from an interview with U2's Bono.
I love his thoughts on Jesus as Messiah as opposed to Jesus a 
great prophet or a 'great thinker'.

Assayas:
Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, 
isn't that far-fetched?

Bono: 

No, it's not far-fetched 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, 
Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucious.

But actually, Christ doesn't allow you that. 

He doesn't let you off that hook.

Christ says, No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. 
I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the messiah." I'm 
saying: "I am God incarnate."

And people say: No, no, please just be a prophet! A prophet we can 
take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating 
locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" 
word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you.

And he goes: No, no, I know you're expecting me to come back with an 
army and set you free from these creeps, but actually i am the Messiah.

At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, 
my God, he's gonna keep saying this.

So what you're left with is either Christ was who He SAID He was - 
the Messiah - or he was a complete nutcase. [my 2 cents: there 
really isn't any middle ground here. people who claim to be God and 
are not aren't great thinkers or good people or great prophets - 
they're either insane or the worst of liars, not to be trusted or 
looked up to in any way]

I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson...I'm 
not joking here.

The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the 
globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase?

For me, thats far-fetched...