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 return to Jesus’ clear call to commitment in Mark 8:34: “And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, ‘Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.’” This sturdy statement comes right after Jesus’ prediction of His own death at the hands of the nation’s leaders (verses 31-32b). Certainly, He would “deny” Himself, for God the Son should not be faced with mankind’s mistreatment. He would physically “take up” the Cross to carry it to Golgotha, the place of execution by crucifixion. Scripture points out that, in His severely weakened condition after being beaten and whipped, Jesus was not able to carry His Cross to its grisly destination: “And as they led Him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus” (Luke 23:26). By dying on that Cross, Jesus accomplished literally that which He calls us to do volitionally. Moreover, His actual death on the Cross was both physical and spiritual. As always, our Savior has done for us far more than we could ever do for Him, for He has suffered the full penalty for our sins.