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.)
To the modern reader, the words of Jesus in Mark 9:49 are somewhat enigmatic: “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” The key to understanding this verse is that Old Testament sacrifices were required to be accompanied by salt: “And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt” (Leviticus 2:13). Because these sacrifices were still taking place when Jesus was ministering on earth, His listeners would have understood Him quite readily. Here, Jesus is again preparing His followers for challenges to come; for “fire” is a symbol of suffering, especially persecution. Discipleship, then, involves sacrifice and suffering. All committed Christians are promised difficulty just because we are Christians: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Timothy 3:12). Acts 14:22b affirms, “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Because Christianity is so different from anything else in the world, opponents of Christ will misunderstand, mischaracterize, and even misuse us. Jesus has prepared us for the reality of this opposition.