8.14.2026 - Jody Duncan

August 14, 2026

Hebrews 13:8

God gives us his faithfulness.

It is a shame we do not know for certain who wrote the book of Hebrews, for that author can be credited with wonderfully practical advice for the new Jewish Christians he was addressing.

Chapter 13, from which today’s scripture verse is taken, instructs them to express brotherly love in many ways, including entertaining strangers in addition to friends and family. The chapter encourages Christians to keep prisoners in their thoughts and offer them their sympathy. It instructs them in the meaning and practice of a Christian marriage. It enjoins them to be content with what they have and to avoid covetousness.

Finally, in verse 8, this promise: Jesus is unchanging. Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever. All of what is instructed in verses 1 through 7 is made possible because of Jesus’ unchanging nature.

I wonder if you’ve experienced anything else in your life that remained so rock solid and unchanging. I don’t think I have.

Like all of us, I’ve experienced a lot of change. My body continues to change in sometimes horrifying ways!

My relationships have changed, too. I had friends I thought would remain close until one of us died. That did not turn out to be the case.

I came from a tightly knit family and assumed those bonds would never break. But rifts formed, family members drifted, key members died. The family isn’t what it once was.

Our hometowns change. Movie theaters come and go, shopping centers come and go, strip malls come and (blessedly) go.

Movie stars come and go, too. I work with young people mostly in their 20s and it still surprises me a little when I mention Paul Newman and they ask, ‘Who?’ (Of course, the ignorance goes both ways. I couldn’t pick out Zendaya from a police lineup until very recently, when I saw her in “The Odyssey.”)

Change, change everywhere.

But Jesus never changes. He is the rock upon which we can build our lives and make our way toward the Kingdom of God.

Holding fast to the truth that Jesus never changes is especially important during times of great social and political turmoil. Some try to hijack Christianity for their own purposes or to support their own viewpoints. I am wary of those who say: ‘Jesus would have approved of this policy,’ or ‘Jesus may have said that, but what he really meant was this – and so he agrees with me!’

The times change. Perceptions change, attitudes change, philosophies change, forms of government change – but through all of that, through all of time, Jesus remains the same. He is our touchstone and our True North.

Today, let us give thanks for that unchanging Jesus, through whose grace we may live our best Christian lives.