When we meet someone we haven’t seen for a long time we politely say, you haven’t changed at all! While this little white lie reveals our good breeding, both parties know change has occurred. The wrinkles give evidence.

It’s said that the only constant in our world is change. But one we look to never changes: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The author followed with this injunction: Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

The Jewish Christians who received this letter may have been tempted by certain ceremonial foods, thought to be advantageous in drawing closer to God. But the author turns them away from fads and toward Jesus Christ himself—don’t substitute the ritual for the one to whom the ritual is aimed.

Of course, I find myself guilty of the same. Lots of teachings bear the stamp of Jesus. It helps a writer make their point by appealing to the nature of Jesus, or to how they think Jesus would certainly act if he were standing here in the flesh. People hold a myriad of views about Jesus. Many wield the idea of Jesus like a magic wand, using his name to sway others toward their cause.

But Jesus never changes. I change, my views and perspectives change, the world around me changes. But not Jesus. To understand Jesus hew to the original. Only by studying the Jesus of the Scriptures do I gain insight into the Jesus in my life.

There is no Jesus 2.0. In the Bible we find the Jesus followed by fishermen, laborers, housewives and kings. Experience the one who is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8-9

Photo from the Camino de Santiago