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.)
We have been considering the great contrast found in Isaiah 59: man is sinful, and Jesus, the Messiah, is “displeased” (verse 15) because our “iniquities have separated” us from Him (verse 2). Jesus, Who loves life and gives life, is especially concerned with violence against the vulnerable, for all human life is valuable to Him. Verse 3 says that man’s “hands are defiled with blood,” and verse 7 states that men “make haste to shed innocent blood.” Verse 6 does not speak of blood, but it does talk of “the act of violence.” In our culture, these denunciations make us think of abortion, which has staunch defenders (follow the money) such as former President Obama. In the last year of his regime, he said that he wanted his own daughters to be able to have abortions if they so chose and that he would support them if they aborted his grandchildren. One wonders how he and his wife will celebrate Grandparents Day. Beyond the horror of happily dispatching a little family member, Mr. Obama also said that abortion is necessary to prevent poverty. This morally reprehensible position is logically fallacious. He is guilty of a false disjunction: it is not an either/or choice. A woman could have a child, and be poor, but she could also have an abortion and be poor. She could also have a child and have plenty of money. A man like Mr. Obama, trained as a lawyer, should know better than to present a false disjunction as a valid argument. Furthermore, his statement is self-refuting, and such an inherent contradiction destroys his argument (really, his assertion), for it is illogical to suggest that we can help the vulnerable by harming the most vulnerable. Mankind has blood on its hands – and on its soul. Only the shed blood of Jesus can wash away this stain.