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.)
The fact that Jesus stands against prevailing culture leads us to another undeniable truth: culture influences people. An example – really, a rather shocking one – is found in Luke 22:19-27. In verses 19-21, Jesus foretells His impending death on the Cross and institutes the Communion service “in remembrance” (verse 19). Certainly this was a sobering time. Then, in verse 22, Jesus tells the disciples that He would be betrayed. They appropriately engaged in introspection: “And they began to enquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this thing” (verse 23). Betrayal, culpability, eternal consequences – these are worthy of humble self-assessment. How then do we get to verse 24?: “And there was also a strife among themselves, which of them should be accounted the greatest.” These were Jesus’ closest followers, yet the influence of their culture was affecting them. Then, like now, success meant power, and power meant greatness. Thus, it was easy for these men to quickly leap from the hard words of Jesus to what their culture valued. All of us would like to think that we would not have joined in this childish argument; let us be sure that we are not doing so now.