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.)
Let us spend one more day in Mark 8:34: “And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, ‘Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’” In idiomatic English, a person who says, “That’s just my cross to bear” (or similar words) means that he has some hardship in life – a bad illness, a bad job, a bad relationship, or something else bad. Jesus is aware of all of these issues and cares about them. In fact, He knows about even the smallest matters, for He said, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30). However, as we have studied the past two days, we must insist that in Mark 8:34 Jesus is not speaking of the general difficulties of life from which the Christian is not immune. No, He is telling us that our total identification must be with Him and that our commitment to Him must also be total. Logically, either we trust in Jesus completely, or we do not trust in Him. There is no middle ground.