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.)
The forces of evil do not relent, and they continued their attacks on our Lord and Savior. Jesus had just silenced the Pharisees and the Herodians, two powerful factions in Israel (Mark 12:13-17). Now, almost immediately, another benighted group confronts Him: “Then came unto Him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection” (verse 18a). The Sadducees were sad excuses for theologians, indeed. They were materialists, denying the supernatural. Thus, they denied not only “resurrection” but also the existence of angels (Acts 23:8) and of future reward or punishment in eternity. Thy claimed as their authority the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch), but, as we will see, they misinterpreted it. In general, they were very wealthy (and the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil – I Timothy 6:10a), controlled the Temple (and did not like Jesus’ cleansing of it), and were cozy with the Roman government. For them, religion was a major part of their power base – and nothing more. Their existence is a reminder of the danger of ritualistic religion. Isaiah 29:13 warns, “Wherefore the Lord said, ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men.’” Jesus quotes this verse in Matthew 15:8-9, reminding us of the possibility of being “far” from Him even when we are in church. Let us instead “draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to [us]” (James 4:8a).