Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
About three weeks ago, I briefly mentioned Luke 9:51. Here, we read that Jesus “stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Our Savior was and is resolute and reliable, steady and stable. Unfortunately, we know that our steadfastness can easily become stubbornness. I Samuel 15:23a says, “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” How can witchcraft, idolatry, and stubbornness be equated? First, sin is sin; it is all “rebellion” against God. Second, all three are attempts to manipulate God, to get our own way. We can contrast our tendency to stubborn selfishness with the selfless steadfastness of Jesus, Who was going to Jerusalem to “be received up” – to die on the Cross. Jesus steadfastly rejected selfishness and instead did the unfathomably hard work of dying physically and spiritually for us. May our steadfastness never become a hardened stoicism or a source of hubris, and may we be alert to the allure of all-consuming selfishness.