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.)
Jesus, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), “stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) to die on the Cross for our sins. Large sections of the Gospels cover what we now call Holy Week (see Matthew 21-28; Mark 14-16; Luke 19-24; John 12-21). Some of the statements of Jesus are truly startling. For example, in John 12:23b, Jesus proclaimed, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.” Who other than Jesus, God the Son, would use the word “glorified” to describe His death? Of course, He was also pointing to His resurrection (verses 24-27), but resurrection must first involve death. Verse 27a records this insight into the mind of Jesus: “Now is My soul troubled.” “Glorified” and “troubled” at the same time – only our Savior could impeccably balance these seemingly conflicting emotions. Fully God and fully human, Jesus “stedfastly” became our sacrificial and substitutionary Lamb.