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.)
After Jesus had fed more than four thousand people (Mark 8:1-9) and was saddened by the unbelief of the Pharisees (Mark 8:10-13), He was briefly alone with His closest disciples on the Sea of Galilee: “Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And He charged them, saying, ‘Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.’ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘It is because we have no bread’” (Mark 8:14-16). The lack of spiritual insight in this group was distressing to Jesus (as the following verses demonstrate). However, their obtuseness was not the sin of unbelief. We should note that their immediate response was that they – not Jesus! – had failed. They were wrong in their assessment of what Jesus was saying, but at least they looked to themselves as the source of the problem. “Bread” was not the issue, for Jesus could have easily fed all of them miraculously. The disciples heard “leaven” (yeast) and thought “bread,” but Jesus was warning them of the attitude of unbelief toward divine revelation that characterized the Pharisees. It is instructive when studying the Gospels to see how often Jesus quoted the Old Testament or directed His listeners to rely on the Word of God. This emphasis should be ours, as well.