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.)
In Mark 3:17, we read of Jesus’ call of two brothers to become apostles: “And James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and He surnamed them Boanerges, which is, ‘The sons of thunder.’” Like brothers Peter and Andrew, these two had previously been called as disciples (Mark 1:19-20). We have already considered a bit about James and John, but here we have the additional information that Jesus called them “the sons of thunder” (which is a really cool nickname and makes me wonder what nicknames Jesus might have for us). They were both powerful preachers, thundering forth the truth. Because of his effectiveness, James suffered an early death, martyrdom at the hands of wicked Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-2). John, equally effective, lived to be an elderly man and did not suffer martyrdom (likely the only one of the apostles who did not). This difference in the timing and mode of death should keep us from making hasty judgments about the demise of others. I have known Christians who died as children and others who died at advanced ages, including one over a hundred years old. There are many things that we do not understand (and, due to our intrinsic limitations, cannot understand). Matters pertaining to death often fall into this category of the inscrutable. Let us learn to leave these difficult matters in the kind and mighty hands of our Savior God.