What Did Jesus Say Was Necessary?

July 27

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~ Today’s Scripture art and mini Bible study are designed to take a closer look at all the times when Jesus spoke the word: Necessary. ~

What did Jesus say was necessary? It might not be what you think!

Today’s mini Bible study took flight right after I read a Bible verse where Jesus used the word “necessary.”

It got my wheels turning. Hmmm. What other things did Jesus say were necessary?

I think of that word as being something that’s required – maybe required before something else can happen.

A quick check of the definition revealed that, as suspected, necessary means: required to be done, achieved, or present; needed; essential.

If Jesus says something is necessary or required, then we should definitely take note, right?

Okay, then let’s dust off our Bible word-study skills and see what else we can find.

Interestingly, I only found 6 things that Jesus said were necessary.

1. It was necessary for Jesus to suffer, be killed, and be raised on the third day.

2. It was necessary that the gospel be preached to all nations.

3. It was necessary to be in the Father’s house.

4. It was necessary for Jesus to stay at someone’s house.

5. It was necessary for wars and rebellions to take place.

6. It was necessary to have courage to testify.

Don’t worry. I’ll put the corresponding verses below.

Just in case your were wondering, I found other verses with the word “necessary,” but only 6 verbally spoken by Jesus Himself. (More on this in a moment.)

Was the list what you thought it would be?

What observations do you make from that list?

I noticed that 3 involved courage and the other 3 involved serving the Lord. And #6 involved both!

Now let’s go back and fill in the details of this mini Bible study …

It all started with the following verse (in my brand new color-coded Bible) …

Matthew 16:21 (CSB): From then on Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.

So that’s #1 on our list above – the first thing Jesus said was necessary.

It was necessary for Jesus to suffer, be killed, and be raised on the third day.

I had read this verse before, and it brought to mind Romans 6:23 which says that the wages of sin is death, but this was the first time I had put much thought into the fact that His death was required to happen in a certain way.

I understood that someone had to die for sins (Hebrews 9:22), but why did it have to include suffering? Why didn’t God plan a quicker, less traumatic death for His Son? Was it because it would make a longer-lasting impression on us? (spoiler alert – no)

God could have covered the wages of sin in any number of ways, but He said suffering was necessary – that it must be done that way.

Was it worded that way in the parallel verses found in the other gospels?

Yep – several times …

Mark 8:31 (CSB): Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.

Luke 9:22 (CSB): saying, “It is necessary that the Son of Man suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.”

Luke 17:25 (CSB): But first it is necessary that he suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Luke 24:26 (ESV): Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Ok, that settles it. Suffering was indeed necessary.

But that doesn’t answer the why question.

So I set out to see if the Bible gave an answer to that “why” or if this was one of those times when God doesn’t explain. After all, He does tell us in Isaiah 55:9 that we won’t always understand His reasoning.

First, I read the verses around all of the verses above to get the proper context. From there, I checked quite a few parallel verses listed in my Bible and read the context around them too.

Long story short, I ended up in Hebrews 2 which, I’m happy to report, had some answers!

3 Reasons Why Suffering was Necessary for Jesus

A. Every sin (our sins!) had to receive a just punishment.

Hebrews 2:2 (NIV): For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,

B. Suffering perfected Jesus – brought Him to the end goal, which is our salvation.

Hebrews 2:10 (ESV): For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

The word “perfect” in this verse is Strong’s 5048 which means: to bring to the end goal; to raise the state befitting him.

C. Jesus had to be like us in every way in order to atone for our sins.

Hebrews 2:17-18 (CSB): Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Incredible, right?

Jesus endured all of that necessary suffering just for us!

That was a lot of digging just on #1!

Now let’s move on to #2 – #6 on our list of verses where Jesus used the word “necessary.”

These will go a little quicker {grin} because I want to save some for you to study with our guided Scripture Notebook Kit below.

By the way, a brief search on Biblegateway.com for the word “necessary” (in several different translations) surprisingly only popped up 36 verses in the New Testament – and most of those were not spoken by Jesus. So that narrowed my list down significantly.

Then I reduced the list even further by looking up the word “necessary” in my Bible dictionary and decided to only use Strong’s G1163 because its primary definition is: it is necessary.

Just so you know, there are 106 uses of G1163 in the Bible, but only 6 met my criteria of being both spoken by Jesus and being translated as “necessary” (rather than “must”).

So let’s move on to the remainder of our list …

2. Mark 13:10 (CSB): And it is necessary that the gospel be preached to all nations.

And similarly … Luke 4:43 (CSB): But he said to them, “It is necessary for me to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose.”

3. Luke 2:49 (CSB): “Why were you searching for me?” he asked them. “Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?”

4. Luke 19:5 (CSB): When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.”

5. Luke 21:9 (CSB): When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. Indeed, it is necessary that these things take place first, but the end won’t come right away.”

6. Acts 23:11 (CSB): The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”

There you have it – the six verses where Jesus used the word necessary.

Now let’s think about how we can apply these necessary things.

Are we taking part in preaching the gospel and proclaiming the good news? It’s necessary.
Are we spending time in our Father’s house? It’s necessary.
Is Jesus staying at our house? It’s necessary.
Are we alarmed when we hear of wars? They’re necessary.
Do we have the courage to testify about Jesus? It’s necessary.

Our list gives us a few things to pray about!

Bible verse where Jesus says one thing is necessary - Luke 10:42

Okay, to wrap up this mini Bible study, I thought I’d share a couple of other verses with Greek words (Strong’s 316, 318, 1189b, 3784, 5532) that were sometimes translated as “necessary” but have a slightly different meaning. For example …

Strong’s 316 means indispensable. It’s used in:

1 Corinthians 12:22 NLT: In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.

Strong’s 5532 means needful. It’s used in:

Luke 10:42 ESV: but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

That one thing? Here’s the rest of that story …

Luke 10:39 ESV: And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.

What beautiful verses to finish today’s mini Bible study.

One thing is necessary. One thing alone is needed.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His teaching.

I think we just did!

It’s easy to read something and promptly forget it, right?

Well, not today!

Because when you write something, it’s different. Writing helps internalize it.

So we’ve put together a Scripture Notebook Kit – complete with guided Scripture writing worksheets – to make sure you truly write “necessary” on your heart!