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.)
The high priest and the Sanhedrin persist in their illegal interrogation of Jesus: “Again the high priest [Caiaphas] asked Him, ‘Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:61b-62). The high priest is breaking the council’s rules by placing Jesus under an oath (Matthew 26:63), trying to inveigle and finagle a self-incriminating statement. In fact, even a confession was not sufficient for a conviction! Rather, legitimate witnesses were to provide consistent and corroboratory testimony, with not even the minutest deviation or contradiction. The high priest’s question, then, is an admission of guilt – not of Jesus’ guilt, for He is sinless, but of the guilt of the prosecuting persecutors. Jesus is not under obligation to speak, but He chooses to. “I am” echoes Exodus 3:14 and is a claim, supported by all evidence, to be fully God. He also quotes from Psalm 110:1 (the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament), placing Himself eternally at “the right hand” of God the Father. He then quotes from Daniel 7:13 about His return “in the clouds of heaven.” Exodus, Psalms, Daniel – in one sentence, Jesus combines the Law and the Prophets to demonstrate what the Word says about the Messiah and that He fulfills all of it. Once again, Jesus reaches out to these hard-hearted legalists and offers them grace. As they seek His death, He seeks to give them life – life eternal. The warning of Revelation 1:7 rings down through the centuries: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.”