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.)
Even as we study the horrid Herods, we must insist upon the Biblical teaching that each person is created in the image of God. Genesis 1:26-27 states, “And God said, ‘Let Us make men in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’ So God created man in His Own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” The perversity of the Herods is infamously legendary – political corruption, adultery, incest, murder (including of family members). The spark of the divine image in them was dim indeed – but not extinguished. The account that we have been studying (Mark 6:14-29) includes this surprising statement about Herod Antipas: when faced with fulfilling his rash promise to Salome and killing John the Baptist, “the king was exceeding sorry” (verse 26a). This expression is one of great distress. It is used only one other time in the New Testament, to describe Jesus’ anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:34). Herod chose not to act appropriately upon this perturbation of spirit. However, its existence is a good reminder that each human soul is created by God in His image and needs to be recreated through faith in God the Son, Jesus Christ.