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.)
Once Jesus began His public ministry, He faced intense scrutiny wherever He went: “But Jesus withdrew Himself with His disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things He did, came unto Him” (Mark 3:7-8). Based on the geographical locations mentioned, some of these people traveled on foot more than 100 miles to see and hear Jesus. Clearly, they had great expectations, and these expectations were not misplaced. Yet, most of these people did not trust in Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Savior. After Jesus fed more than 5,000, He said, “Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled” (John 6:26b). “Saw” means that they understood the significance of “the miracles,” but they were far more interested in having their stomachs “filled.” Really, then, they were using Jesus. This sad response to Him was not as threatening as the homicidal hostility of the Pharisees (verse 6). However, it has the same eternal outcome of rejecting Jesus and His offer of salvation. Even for Christians today, this passage is a warning about the abiding temptation of presuming that man can manipulate God. May we see the folly of placing our demands above the perfect will of our Savior.