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.)
We will return to Mark 14:28 tomorrow, but today let us consider verses 29-31: “But Peter said unto Him, ‘Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.’ And Jesus saith unto him, ‘Verily I say unto thee, “That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice.”’ But he spake the more vehemently, ‘If I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee in any wise.’ Likewise also said they all.” The disciples were shocked at Jesus’ prediction that they would abandon Him (verse 27). No one likes to be reminded of personal failure, but it was necessary for Jesus to speak this truth to them. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon said regarding this dialogue, “He who thinks himself so much stronger than his brethren is the very man who will prove to be weaker than any of them, as did Peter, not many hours after his boast was uttered.” How true! Of course, all of the disciples were guilty of unwarranted self-confidence: “Likewise also said they all.” Contradicting our Savior is never appropriate, of course. It is instructive that this display of arrogance occurred shortly after each disciple had thought it possible that he might be the betrayer of Jesus: “Is it I?” (verse 19). From that point of godly humility to this place of great hubris is a surprisingly short step. I Corinthians 10:12 comes to mind again, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”