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 5:35-43, we read of the unthinkable – or, at least, the one thing that we do not want to think about. Here is the painful account of the death of a little girl. Of course, for Jesus, death is no more than sleep (verse 39); for Him, raising the dead was no more difficult than waking someone from a nap. However, no one thought that Jesus would do anything, and, in fact, “they laughed him to scorn” (verse 41). Their last hope (that Jesus would heal her before she died) had turned to no hope. Do you know that feeling? Perhaps you have been to that place; maybe you are there right now. At that place of no hope, there is Jesus. The folks there did not expect Jesus to do anything. Their laughter in a time of sadness was grotesque, but it is a picture of mankind, all of us laughing at Jesus while we are dead, spiritually dead. Yet, as they laughed at Jesus, He returned a little life to this world and transformed a family’s gut-grinding grief to jaw-dropping joy. Here is power – and love: note in verse 43 the kind consideration of Christ Jesus. May we join in the joy, for His miraculous work of raising a precious little one from death is a pre-figuring of the resurrection of Jesus Himself… and of all who trust in Him for eternal salvation.