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 7:8, Jesus demonstrated how misplaced the religious leaders’ legalism was: “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the traditions of men, as the washing of pots and cups, and many other such like things ye do.” How silly this emphasis on “cleannesses” seems when Jesus puts everything into proper perspective! Jesus then quickly turned to a far more serious issue, that of elder abuse: “Fully well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honour thy father and thy mother’; and, ‘Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death’: but ye say, ‘If a man shall say to his father or mother, “It is Corban,” that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.’ And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye” (verses 9-13). By saying “Corban” (the transliteration of a Hebrew word that means “gift”), these greedy legalists claimed that they had devoted their resources to God and thus were freed from any obligations to parents – obligations that God had established in His Law! Jesus had bluntly called these leaders “hypocrites” (verse 6); by placing their own ideas above Scripture, they revealed that Jesus was accurate in His assessment. May we reject this hypocrisy by accepting the absolute authority of the Word of God.