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.)
Mark 14:46 says simply, “And they laid their hands on Him, and took Him.” Our familiarity with this event should not diminish its horror, for man arrests God, God the Son, Jesus Christ. No doubt all of us have been accused of something that we did not do. Thus, we understand a bit of the unfairness of this arrest. The manner in which Jesus handles this extreme example of unfairness is, not surprisingly, exemplary. John 18:4-6 provides what occurred just before His actual arrest: “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth, and said unto them, ‘Whom seek ye?’ They answered Him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus saith unto them, ‘I am He.” And Judas also, which betrayed Him, stood with them. As soon as He had said unto them, ‘I am He,’ they went backward, and fell to the ground.” This simple display of divine sovereignty should have convinced all of these men, including traitorous Judas, that Jesus is the Messiah and that they should not be involved in any action against Him. Clearly, He could have struck them all dead, or He could have incapacitated them and easily escaped. Instead, He is giving all of these men the opportunity to do the right thing, yet not one of them chooses to seize this opportunity of grace. Rather, they seize Jesus. The baseness of the benighted soul blackened by sin becomes blatantly sinister and self-deceptive. Let us shudder, and let us seek the everlasting embrace of our Savior.