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.)
Because Jesus is perfect, He is able to be angry yet not sin (Ephesians 4:26). His anger is displayed against hypocrisy; in fact, his frank use of the designation “hypocrite” is daunting, for it could be used of each of us (Matthew 7:5). In Matthew 15:7, Jesus again berates the Pharisees as “hypocrites.” He then uses a memorable word picture in verse 14 to further describe them: “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” There is a twofold problem here: being spiritually blind and following blindly. This sad outcome is inevitable if we do not follow Jesus’ command in Matthew 7:5, which we studied Saturday. Since Jesus’ anger is beneficial, we would expect Him to provide us with clear directions on how to remove both beam and mote and how to avoid spiritual blindness and following blindly. James 1:22-25 tells us that the steady, regular reading of God’s Word provides a spiritual mirror in which we can see ourselves more clearly. Verse 26 then mentions both “tongue” and “heart,” telling us that we can check for immediate results and for consistent movement in the right direction. Note verse 8 as well: “A double minded [literally, double-souled] man is unstable in all his ways.” We do not have to be double-souled, nor do we have to follow others who are double-souled. God’s Word can remove both beam and mote and restore our spiritual sight. There is more to say about God’s remedial anger, but for now let us be grateful that He speaks forthrightly and forcefully to help us.