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.)
We are blessedly familiar with the Gospel message of Jesus’ death on the Cross and His miraculous Resurrection, but His closest disciples needed to learn of these central truths of the Christian faith: “And He began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He spake that saying openly” (Mark 8:31-32a). Jesus spoke plainly (the meaning of “openly”), providing a detailed outline of what was to take place. The disciples knew of the messianic designation “the Son of man,” for it was Jesus’ most frequently used self-designation. However, it was derived from Daniel 7:13-14, a passage that speaks of the Messiah’s “everlasting dominion.” This section does not discuss suffering, death, and resurrection. The disciples thought that this “everlasting dominion” would simply be ushered in by the presence of “the Son of man.” Jesus was giving them (and us) the necessary rest of the story. It is tragic – eternally tragic – that a number of churches today refuse to teach about the shed blood of our Savior. I once spoke with the pastor of a large church (hundreds of people) who called this key doctrine of the Church “barbaric.” Following Jesus’ clear teaching and example, though, we must insist that speaking of Christ without including His Cross is unacceptable.