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.)
Certainly Jesus is rich; Ephesians 3:16, for example, speaks of “the riches of His glory.” Yet, He chose to become poor; Philippians 2:7 says that He “made Himself of no reputation.” He “emptied Himself” (NAS) or “made Himself nothing” (NIV), meaning that He voluntarily set aside the full exercise of His divinity while retaining His full deity. In His Incarnation, Jesus spent nine months in Mary’s womb and when born was placed in a feeding trough (that is what a “manger” is – Luke 2:7) in a barn. As a small child, Jesus resided in Egypt; He and his impoverished family were strangers in a strange land. In His ministry, “the Son of Man [had] not where to lay His head” (Luke 9:58). Even worse, we remember the Cross, “even the death of the Cross” (Philippians 2:9). Think of all the places where Jesus did not belong: the womb, a manger, a human body, Egypt, a poor family, adult poverty, the Cross. Indeed, He made Himself poor.