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.)
For the second time in three years (John 2:13-17), Jesus cleansed the Temple: “And they came to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple” (Mark 11:15-16). The fact that nothing had changed for the better in three years is a clear indicator of the existence of man’s sin nature. Atheistic humanists believe that people are perfectible; that is, if we create better conditions, we will create better people. Jesus pointed out in Mark 10:17-27 that individuals with better conditions (the wealthy) were not better people and, in fact, were much more likely to be spiritually blind. His previous cleansing of the Temple had briefly created a better place of worship, but that improvement had quickly been rejected by the ruling class and others. Mankind does not need a transition; no, it needs a transformation. Only Jesus can accomplish this radical alteration: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).