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.)
Let us again consider Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus (Mark 14:66-72). Peter had bragged that he would never abandon Jesus (Mark 14:29-31) but did so within a few hours; he thought that he was the man, but he found that he was a man. The inclusion of his failure in the Gospels is extraordinarily instructive. The Bible is always truthful. It never engages in hagiography but refuses to idealize those who are not ideal. Peter quickly became a leader in the early Church after Jesus’ threefold forgiveness of him (John 21:15-18). However, he clearly was far from perfect. His failure, though, forced him to depend on his Savior. When Mark wrote this Gospel, likely in the 50’s of the first century, the Church was already being heavily persecuted. The story of Peter was thus both a serious warning – yes, even an apostle could buckle under pressure – and a strong exhortation to resist self-dependence and over confidence. II Corinthians 4:7 uses memorable imagery to convey our need for continued and growing dependence on Jesus: “But we have this treasure [the Gospel] in earthen vessels [jars of clay], that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Like Peter, we are mere jars of clay in the kind and mighty hands of the Master Potter. The witty and well-respected preacher Vance Havner – one of my favorites – once said, “The Lord had the strength and I had the weakness, so we teamed up! It was an unbeatable combination.” It always is – for each Christian, for me, for you.