The Wednesday Word ~ 19 October, 2022 A.D.

Jesus the Precious One: Part 1.

by D.G. Miles McKee

 
When Peter penned the words: “Unto you therefore which believe He is precious” (1 Peter 2:7), he was writing to believers who were facing great persecution.  Despite the huge hostility they were encountering, these believers had a passion for Christ.  They understood there was nothing of greater value in this life than that of having Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
 
Jesus is precious!
 
Now, to be precious means to be filled with immense value.  Indeed, when something is precious, it is often impossible to calculate its worth.  It’s sad to say, however, Jesus’ lovely name is nothing more than a swear word to many. To many He is not precious.
 
But notice how our text says that He is already precious to those who believe.  That is one of the reasons why I think that much of that which is portraying itself as authentic Christianity is actually missing the mark.  In lots of what is being presented as Christianity, the centre of attention is the believer.  We hear about the believer’s well-being, the believer’s progress, the believer’s success, and so on and so forth..  Christ has been replaced by man; theology, as someone has said, has been replaced by ME-ology.
 
But the scriptures are clear.  They teach us that in all things Christ Jesus is to have pre-eminence (Colossians 1:18).  He is to be preeminent in His church and preeminent in our lives.  This happens when we discover the preciousness of Jesus.
 
Consider Paul. He discovered in Jesus a preciousness so immense that he took all his hard-won lifetime achievement awards and threw them, as it were, into a giant dumpster.  And then he looked at that pile of worthless prizes there in the dumpster, threw his head back, laughed and declared, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all…” (see Philippians 3:8).
 
Jesus is precious for He is the eternal one, the Word made flesh, invading time and history, becoming human, walking the dusty highroads and byroads of Palestine, revealing God to all who came near.
 
And everywhere He went, He took people who were sick in mind and body, defiled by sin, in bondage to death and Satan and liberated them with the compassion and power of God.  He still does this today. He is precious.
 
Do you remember the story of Bartimaeus in Mark 10?
Who was Bartimaeus?  He was a blind destitute beggar, the son of a man called Timaeus.  By the way, the prefix ‘bar’ means son of, e.g. BAR-Jonas means Son of Jonas.   So Bartimaeus was known as the son of Timaeus.  Bartimaeus didn’t even have a first name. He was just the son of Timaeus.  Interestingly enough Timaeus means DEFILED so Bartimaeus was the son of a defiled man.  He was a poor blind wretch of a beggar, but the sovereign creator of the universe, because He is precious, stood still at his cry for mercy!
 
Come to think of it, we are all by birth children of a defiled man. “For by one man sin entered and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12).
We were all beggars by the highway of life. But Jesus met us and saved us.  He is precious.
 
Do you think Jesus became precious to Bartimaeus?  Yes indeed, Jesus healed him and Bartimaeus followed Christ.
 To Bartimaeus, Jesus was precious.
 
And that’s the Gospel Truth!