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.)
In Mark 12:10-11, Jesus continues to reveal His authority: “And have ye not read this scripture; ‘The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’?” Here, Jesus quotes from Psalm 118:22-23, a well-known Messianic Psalm. It was part of what was called the Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118). Hallel means “praise” (the opening word of Psalm 113), and the designation Egyptian comes from Psalm 114, which recalls God’s miraculous intervention for the people of Israel in leading them out of slavery in Egypt, what is called the Exodus. These six Psalms were sung at the Passover, the first two before the meal and the other four after it. Since the Passover was to be held the very week in which Jesus was speaking, these Psalms would have been on the minds of all of the people. By directing the religious leaders to this specific passage, He was again teaching them from the Old Testament, which they officially recognized as the authoritative Word of God. Thus, by rejecting the authority of Jesus as God the Son and as the promised Messiah, these benighted religious elites were also rejecting the authority of God’s Word. Many pastors today, especially those in large churches, claim that large portions of the Bible cannot be trusted. One famous leader of a church of tens of thousands asserts that only a handful of Jesus’ sayings are to be considered valid. Such disdain places such people in the same company as those who killed Jesus.