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.)
After a broken-hearted father spoke to Jesus about his son’s desperate condition (Mark 9:17-18), our Lord gave a soul-searching response: “He answered him, and saith, ‘O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer [put up with] you? Bring him unto Me’” (verse 19). Jesus was not referring to this poor man, for he had sought out the Messiah for healing. Certainly the taunting “scribes” (verse 14) were “faithless,” for they were interested in one thing: discrediting Jesus. However, the focus of Jesus’ statement was His own disciples. How sobering! He had specifically given these men the authority to cast out demons (Mark 6:7, 13). He could not be with them each moment; in fact, soon He would not be alongside them at all as He returned to His rightful place in heaven. These men had lost an opportunity to glorify God and to silence His opponents. They had also lost the opportunity to bless this father and to free this child. Thus, it is no wonder that our Lord spoke so forcefully. “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48b).