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 Saturday of Holy Week is often called Silent Saturday because so little happened. It was the Jewish Sabbath, and the legalistic Pharisees made sure that the people did as little as possible. As we would expect, though, these elites did not always abide by the rules that they slapped on others. Matthew 27:62-66 records, “Now the next day [Saturday] that followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, ‘Sir, we remember that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, “After three days I will rise again.” Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, “He is risen from the dead”: so the last error shall be worse than the first.’ Pilate said unto them, ‘Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as you can.’ So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” The irony is powerful, for the most vocal and vicious of Jesus’ enemies unwittingly provided staunch testimony that the resurrection of the Savior occurred, exactly as He had predicted. The so-called silence of God, then, echoes far louder and far longer than the seething shouts of man.