The Wonder of His Works -- Defying the Predictable!

Sabbath School Class—Life as Discovery and Hope
May 3, 2008
Larry R Evans

It is unlikely that I will be able to add my personal teaching notes again this week due to other commitments. However, we have added to the Reflective Review at the end of the quiz some additional thoughts which we would have incorporated intou tour teaching plan had we taught .

Quiz for Reflection

1. Healing diseases was Christ’s priority after the Sermon on the Mount. [Mt 8:1-4] True or False?

2. Nature is more obedient to the voice of God than those created in His own image. [Gn 1:26,27; Isa 1:3; Mt 8:23-27] True or False?

3. Jesus healed but only after the individual would say “I believe.” [Mt 9:27-31;12:22,23; Mk 2:1-12] True or False?

4. When it comes to completing the mission Christ has given to the Church, compassion for others has priority over “efficiency.” [Mk 10:13-16; 14:3-10;Mt 9:35-38; 19:23,24; Mt 20:29-34] True or False?

5. The Church of today should be more of a “sign of nearness” than a “voice proclaiming nearness.” [Mt 11:2-6, 19; Isa 61:1-3; Mt 28:19; Mt 25: 31-46; Rev 14:6-12] True or False?

6. Being freed from addictions has common ground with being freed from demon possession. [Lk 4:18, 19; 10: 17-21] True or False?

7. Being freed from addictive powers is not appreciated by everyone. [Mt 8:28-34] True or False?

8. The most powerful sign of Christ’s reign now is life. [Acts 53:19-21; 1 Cor 15:52; Rev 1:18; Rom 6:4] True or False?

Reflective Review

Jesus was not predictable. Not only was His entrance into this world a surprise, His ministry and departure were as well. Jesus touches a leper and he is healed, with spittle He healed a blind man, He shows mourners that a dead girl is only sleeping, with words He calms an angry sea, He finds tax money in the mouth of a fish, He feeds thousands with a boys lunch and while teaching righteousness He dwelt among sinners and tax collectors. He restores not only bodies of the sick and dying but He brought back hope to the hopeless. Jesus was not predictable.

Not only was Jesus not predictable, neither were His teachings about His kingdom. In His kingdom the first were last and the greatest were really the least. It was the poor in spirit whom He said would be the recipients of the kingdom, while the meek would inherit the earth. While dying on a cruel cross in the midst of a jeering crowd, among His last words were, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Even in his last moments, Jesus was not predictable.

I find the following stimulating: “When a light is brought into a room, what was a window becomes also a mirror reflecting back the contents of that room. In Jesus not only do we have a window to God, we also have a mirror of ourselves, a reflection of what God had in mind when he created this ‘poor, bare, forked animal.’ Human beings were, after all, created in the image of God; Jesus reveals what that image should look like.” (Philip Yancey in The Jesus I Never Knew, pp.269-270, Emphasis mine.)

It seems that the lack of predictability achieves its purpose when we pause long enough to ask and ponder, “Why?” “What is meant by these wonders of Jesus?” Yes, He defied predictability. Why is that so important? Why is that such good news? Because I know that all have sinned and the wages of such is death. Predictability says all will perish. Not necessarily so . . . thanks to the predictability of God’s amazing grace.

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