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 concluding our study of Jesus and His confronting, correcting, and counteracting our culture, we return to Matthew 20:16: “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” Our culture promotes power instead of service (Luke 22:24-27), the sensational instead of the steady (Matthew 12:38-40), the temporal instead of the eternal (Luke 10:17-20). By looking to the character of Jesus, we learn how to focus on what matters. In Mark 10:45, Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Because He serves, we are to serve. Similarly, the consistent, reliable, dependable nature of Jesus (Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever”) calls us to be loyal and faithful. Certainly no one knows eternity better than Jesus; His emphasis on everlasting life must also be our focus. When we pursue these things that are so important to Jesus, we are not in the majority (“many be called, but few chosen”). However, we are doing what is right, and we become part of how Jesus shines His light into our culture’s darkness.