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.)
Jesus refused to be intimidated by the aggressive legalism (is there any other kind?) of the Pharisees. When a disabled man needed healing (Mark 3:1-2), Jesus stared down their disapproval and challenged them: “And He saith unto the man [who] had the withered hand, ‘Stand forth.” And He saith unto them, ‘Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill?’ But they held their peace” (verses 3-4). Even a small child could correctly answer Jesus’ basic questions about right and wrong. Such a response would not require good parental guidance or a godly culture (both are, of course, good things), for the Bible is clear that God has placed a conscience in each person (Ecclesiastes 3:11; John 8:9; Acts 23:1; II Corinthians 1:12; I Timothy 3:9, 4:2; Titus 1:15; Hebrews 9:14, 10:22). The fact that the Pharisees chose to “hold their peace” (not a common occurrence for them!) rather than answer these simple queries indicates that the issue was far deeper than the Sabbath or even Jesus’ claim to be “Lord” (Mark 2:28). They had chosen to live in moral darkness, a condition worsened by their veneer of shocked respectability. They really did not care about others; Jesus did. May we “stand forth” with Him.