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.)
Jesus’ interaction with a Gentile woman in Phoenicia led to the complete healing of her daughter (Mark 7:24-30). The parallel account in Matthew 15:28 includes this additional statement from Jesus: “O woman, great is thy faith.” Our Savior dealt with tens of thousands of people during His earthly ministry. However, He commended only a very few for their depth of faith. Matthew 15:23 tells us that the disciples were annoyed by this lady’s loud persistence. Her persistence, though, was not presumption. When she approached Jesus, she “fell at His feet” (Mark 7:25) in real humility and called Him “Lord” (Mark 7:28). Faith is great only when it is placed in the One Who is great. The key lesson for everyone is that faith starts with coming to Jesus. This simple step is not dramatic; anyone can fall at the feet of Jesus in faith. A great faith must willingly kneel before the “Lord” and be ready to receive His great goodnesses.