Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." – Matthew 8:4

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 2, 2020): Matthew 8

German-American poet, Charles Bukowski, commented, "there's nothing like privacy. You know, I like people. It's nice that they might like my books and all that...but I'm not the book, see? I'm the guy who wrote it, but I don't want them to come up and throw roses on me or anything. I want them to let me breathe." For those who have never achieved any sort of fame, the comment might be hard to understand. After all, we want to be recognized for something. Most of us would like to possess a modicum of fame. But the truth is that more than a little fame tends to take over our lives, and it drives privacy out of our lives. And, sometimes, fame can stop us from doing what it is that we need to do. Being famous for being famous is a modern phenomenon, as well as a rather useless one.

The words of Jesus are almost weird. Jesus does a fantastic miracle, one that would add to his fame, yet he asks the man not to tell anyone. What the man was supposed to do was go and do the things that were demanded by the Mosaic Law. Part of the reason behind the instruction was that Jesus knew that the miracle originated with God the Father, and all of the publicity should return to the God of Moses.

But the other side of the equation was that Jesus's focus was on the person, not on his personal ability to perform miracles. Becoming famous as a miracle worker, which eventually Jesus would become largely because those he healed just couldn't remain silent about who Jesus was, would eventually interfere with Jesus's ability to minister to the person. And the person was always the focus of Jesus. Jesus was not a magician who trained at his craft to do magic, entertaining the people. Jesus was not the Penn Jillette of the ancient world. The miracles were not the primary purpose of Jesus's ministry. The person was the focus. Always.

A friend once remarked, after becoming infatuated with miracle performing ministries, that all Christian organizations should do that. My reply was that we do, each in our way. Miracles happen among the churches of the world all the time. But that is not where our focus is supposed to be. Our focus is always on the needs of the people in our midst.

And some ministries in the process become famous. Maybe that can't be helped. But it can't change our focus. As soon as public relations become the focal point of our ministry, at that moment, when we begin to do things because of the attention that we will get, rather than because it is what the person needs, we cease being reflections of Jesus and become something "less than."  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 2