“Indeed He (God) says, ‘It is too small a thing that You (Jesus) should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Isaiah 49:6

Too Small a Thing

I have some friends who used their own savings to put their daughters through four years of university. The daughters did very well, worked hard, got good grades, and came out on top academically. What did they do with all that education? One works in a bakery, and the other drives a tour bus for hire. Respectable jobs, yes, but perhaps unworthy of their scholastic achievements. Some might make the argument that these occupations were “beneath” their abilities.

That’s one of the things I love about Jesus—He was always willing to stoop to the “beneath” ones: the diseased, the undesirable, the difficult. No one was too small.

But there is one time God said to His Son, “That is too small for You.” The occasion was foretold in the prophecy in Isaiah, quoted above. It was too small a thing for Jesus to JUST save the nation of Israel. If He was coming all this way to show us the Father, if He was to be arrested and accused and shamed, if He to die on a cross to atone for sins, then He would do it for EVERYONE, all at once.

He was no halfway Savior. He didn’t die and resurrect for tens of thousands—no, that would have been too small a thing. He died and resurrected for multiplied billions of people. Everyone. “He Who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up FOR US ALL, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

There is no need to go Savior-shopping. There isn’t one Savior for the Jews and one for the rest of us. Jesus was God’s “salvation to the ends of the earth.” He was the only Savior, and will ever be the only Savior. No sacrifices, no ritual of organized religion, no penance, and no gifts made with our own hands, have ever been able to save. “… this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

Yes, He came to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel, but He also came as a light to the Gentiles. Light points the way in darkness. “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:46). That’s what Jesus came to do for those of us who are not Jewish. That Light led those who were in captivity (all of us) out of our chains and into freedom.

“Father, thank You for Your indescribable gift, bringing salvation to all—for You love us all. Amen.”