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.)
Thoughtful scholars of Scripture have called Jesus’ words in Mark 12:17 the most crucial political statement in the history of mankind: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” This simple command is the foundation of Western civilization. It teaches us that Christians have dual citizenship. We are citizens of our native nation and thus should be involved in the political process. We have obligations as good citizens (more about that aspect of this verse tomorrow). We also have citizenship in heaven: “For our conversation [literally, citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). We perhaps miss the force of this verse, for we are born into national citizenship. However, most of the people in the Roman Empire were not citizens; the majority were slaves and experienced no legal protections. Thus, the Biblical teaching on this issue is revolutionary, impacting all Christians now and forever.