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.)
May we continue to learn from a blind man how to see: “And when he [Bartimaeus] heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, ‘Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.’ And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, ‘Thou Son of David, have mercy on me’” (Mark 10:47-48). The fame of Jesus had spread to this Judean city of Jericho (verse 46), about 18 miles from Jerusalem. Bartimaeus knew our Lord’s name and correctly called Jesus by the most common Messianic title of that era, “Son of David.” He also begged, not for money, but for “mercy,” the withholding of God’s righteous judgment. These three details in one short sentence reveal a man of unusual spiritual insight. He had heard about Jesus, pieced the information together in his mind, and came to an accurate conclusion. He would not be dissuaded from expressing this certainty openly; the “many” tried to shush him, but he would not be silenced. His godly yearning for his physical sight to be restored was a positive outworking of his burgeoning faith. Let us join with Bartimaeus in seeing Who Jesus is and in living with a godly persistence.