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 return today to the grand fact that Jesus is merciful. His withholding of our merited punishment is well-illustrated in Luke 17:11-19. Ten lepers (verses 10-11) cried out to Jesus, “Master, have mercy on us” (verse 12). This corporate plea is intriguing. All ten needed physical healing from leprosy. The prevailing (and incorrect) theology of the religious leaders was that those men (or their parents) had done something so egregious that they deserved to be afflicted with leprosy. Despite their wrong idea, Jesus healed all of them (verse 14). Only one returned and “glorified God” (verse 15) by giving “thanks” (verse 16). Jesus then pointed out that this man had real “faith” and was now “whole” (verse 19). The other nine had received both mercy and grace from Jesus in their physical healing. However, at that time, they did not show any interest in spiritual healing. Still, Jesus’ full and eternal mercy remained available to them. May we be like the one thankful man and rejoice in the fullness of Jesus’ mercy.