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.)
Mark 8:34 is Christ’s clarion call to commitment: “And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, ‘Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’” There is no way to water down our Lord’s words. The “cross” meant one thing to the people of the first century: it was a symbol of death by Roman crucifixion. A person condemned to this form of capital punishment was required to carry his own cross to the place of execution. All of “the people” listening to Jesus would have known immediately that He was stating in the strongest possible terms that discipleship is an absolute commitment. If we are to “follow” Jesus, each one of us needs to make a definite decision to do so. Furthermore, this is an ongoing choice to “deny” one’s own stubborn and selfish way. Jesus did not coddle His listeners. Rather, He told them exactly what they were signing up for if they became His disciples. Many of these early believers were martyred for their faith, and many more were martyred down through the ensuing centuries. Clearly, commitment has a cost, and Jesus forthrightly directs us to make the choice of complete commitment. Really, there is no other commitment worthy of the use of that word.