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.)
Mark 4:35-36 moves from Jesus’ parabolic teaching to His instruction drawn from the personal experiences of His closest disciples: “And the same day, when the even was come, He saith unto them, ‘Let us pass over the other side.’ And when they had sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. And there were also with Him other little ships.” This “same day” had been a strenuous one. It included confrontation with the Pharisees (and who enjoys confrontation?), Jesus’ family coming to take Him home (and who likes being thought of as crazy?), and preaching from a boat because of the boisterous crowd (and who is comfortable being jostled?). Jesus was physically exhausted and needed rest. Had He set foot on shore where He had been teaching, “the multitude” would not have left Him, and He would not have had the opportunity for restorative sleep. This transition to “the other side” brings Jesus and the disciples into another problem – a raging storm. These circumstances remind us that Jesus was fully human, a necessity for Him to become the perfect substitute for us and for our sins. We are also reminded that following Jesus does not diminish the difficulties in life. Christians are not immune from challenges: “We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22c). The great differences for us are that Jesus is always with us (Hebrews 13:5c) and that our eternal destination in heaven is secure (John 14:1-6).