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 testing of Jesus, often called the temptation of Christ, is inaugurated by these words from Mark 1:12a: “And immediately the spirit driveth Him into the wilderness.” Although “Spirit” is not capitalized in the King James Version, the context (verse 10) makes it clear that God the Holy Spirit is being spoken of here. Some might wonder about the use of the strong word “driveth.” Others use a different Greek word that is translated “led” (Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:1). This difference is not a contradiction. Some time ago, I preached a sermon entitled “Why Do We Have Four Gospels?” (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). One compelling reason is that we receive more details. Of course, we do not have every detail. As John wrote, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that not even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen” (21:25). Another important reason is that God employed the individual abilities and personalities of the Gospel writers to create readable accounts from unique perspectives. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God [literally, is God-breathed]” (II Timothy 3:16a) but also provides glimpses into the lives of the very real Christians who were both “led” and “driven” by the Spirit to write. Mark is particularly noted for his vigorous style. For example, he uses the Greek word translated “immediately” or “straightway” more than forty times. Thus, he chose the more forceful word “driven” rather than “led” because he was emphasizing the raw reality of Jesus’ ministry generally and the intensity of His spiritual conflict with Satan specifically. An application for us is that our gracious Lord will direct us to effective service for Him if we willingly submit to Him.