Read Matthew 12:15-21
Have you had your 15 minutes of fame... yet!
Ours is a culture obsessed with being famous. Celebrity worship, reality TV, tabloids, and lots of other things point to the value we hold for being well known even if it's not for something good or useful to society. Anthony Weiner is a good example. He's famous, but would any of us want to be known in that way? Probably not. Even as church folks, we often attribute the highest success to the churches that are most known.
So what do we do with the command of Jesus to the crowds that followed him "not to make him known?" It seems that Jesus had no desire to be famous. Even if He was doing things we would consider miraculous in healing the sick and caring for the invisible in society, he did not want to be known even for this. Why?
The writer of Matthew provides an answer. So that the ancient scriptures concerning the Messiah would be fulfilled in Jesus. Those texts told of one that would come to power in such a gentle and unassuming way that not even extinguished candles or damaged instruments would be affected. This would be the opposite of the way most power came into the world. With loud blasts and lots of fanfare. Jesus was different just as the prophets had predicted. Jesus was faithful.
God sees things differently than we do. We look at the loud, the famous, the well attended, and the most known. Even in church. But God provides healing and life in the gentle and the unassuming proclamation of the gospel. Jesus was faithful for faithfulness sake, and not because it would make him known, but because this is the way of our God.
What will we be known for?
Being known for being faithful?
Being faithful for being known by God?
That lasts way more than 15 minutes...
Ours is a culture obsessed with being famous. Celebrity worship, reality TV, tabloids, and lots of other things point to the value we hold for being well known even if it's not for something good or useful to society. Anthony Weiner is a good example. He's famous, but would any of us want to be known in that way? Probably not. Even as church folks, we often attribute the highest success to the churches that are most known.
So what do we do with the command of Jesus to the crowds that followed him "not to make him known?" It seems that Jesus had no desire to be famous. Even if He was doing things we would consider miraculous in healing the sick and caring for the invisible in society, he did not want to be known even for this. Why?
The writer of Matthew provides an answer. So that the ancient scriptures concerning the Messiah would be fulfilled in Jesus. Those texts told of one that would come to power in such a gentle and unassuming way that not even extinguished candles or damaged instruments would be affected. This would be the opposite of the way most power came into the world. With loud blasts and lots of fanfare. Jesus was different just as the prophets had predicted. Jesus was faithful.
God sees things differently than we do. We look at the loud, the famous, the well attended, and the most known. Even in church. But God provides healing and life in the gentle and the unassuming proclamation of the gospel. Jesus was faithful for faithfulness sake, and not because it would make him known, but because this is the way of our God.
What will we be known for?
Being known for being faithful?
Being faithful for being known by God?
That lasts way more than 15 minutes...
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