Fascinating

Isn’t He? Jesus, I mean. Isn’t He simply fascinating?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the word fascinating is defined:

extremely interesting or charming : CAPTIVATING

Several synonyms caught my attention in relation to this word fascinating: compelling, engaging, intriguing.

And so today, I’m a bit more challenged by my goal of allowing each of these 28 words to point me toward the character of Jesus.

When I go to my Bible app and search the word fascinating, I receive no results. Fascinating is not a common Bible word and yet this very fact makes searching the character of Jesus all the more intriguing.

My pondering thoughts led me to the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I reminisced over some of my favorite parables remembering that some people upon listening to Jesus walked away scratching their scalps while others leaned in for further explanation. He was intriguing. Fascinating.

I thought too about the way Jesus called particular men to follow Him as disciples – fishermen, a tax collector and a zealot. The most fascinating aspect of His call is that these twelve men dropped their lives – work, family, everything- immediately and followed after Jesus. He was compelling. Fascinating.

Demons recognized Jesus and were silenced by His authority. Men were healed by Jesus and told to keep it quiet. Not recognizing His authority, these healed souls couldn’t keep their mouths shut. They shouted their testimony to everyone who cared to hear.

Fascinating is the fact that Jesus came to us fully God wrapped in baby flesh. He lived obedient to His Father in heaven as a humble servant knowing He carried the fullness of authority to call down the hosts of heaven with a word whispered. Such character. Self-control.

Fascinating, isn’t He?

And so I will continue to ponder the fascinating character of Jesus today. This is a fun word!

But I will close with the poetic, prophetic words of Isaiah who described our fascinating Lord more brilliantly than I.

Isaiah 53

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:‭1‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Eyes on Jesus and Shine,

~Lisa

Read these Bible selections for further pondering:

Psalm 22

The gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

Genesis 1-2