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.)
Jesus meets the accusatory tone of the Pharisees (Mark 2:23-24) with a calm and compelling rebuttal in verses 25-26: “Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with them?” The account that Jesus here references is found in I Samuel 21:1-6. There, a priest named Ahimelech recognized his moral obligation to provide for David and his men, who were fleeing from the wrathful King Saul. The shewbread was actually “hallowed bread” (verse 4), specifically set aside for the priests only (Leviticus 24:5-9). In fact, this was “a perpetual statute” (Leviticus 24:9). However, Ahimelech, clearly a devout and spiritually-minded priest, realized that protecting human lives superseded this ceremonial regulation. Jesus’ point is that man’s needs were far more important than the Pharisees’ man-made restrictions. Jesus is more concerned about people than about what some people say or think. May we follow His perfect example.