Mark 3:7-19
As news of Jesus’ miracles and teaching began to spread, he retreated. Travelers from distant regions did not finding him in the towns but in the countryside. They were forced to go looking for him, rather than finding him every day at the synagogue in Capernaum or some other large, public meeting place.
Jesus’ approach to his ministry is striking. He did not go looking for fame. He did not seek self-promotion. His singular drive to glorify his Father through a life of service that ended on the cross is a ministry approach that is counter-intuitive to us and ridiculed by the world.
The world teaches us that to be effective you must have influence, and to have influence you must be popular. And to be popular you must have a strategy of self-promotion either from your own mouth or the mouths of others. Jesus’ early miracles spread by the lips of others, but not on account of him. He commanded those he healed not to boast about him, and here we see him silencing the demons as before. The time to openly reveal himself to the world had not yet come – and so he retreated to “lonely places” in the Galilean wilderness.
But still they came out to see him. They came for their needs. Some wanted to be entertained and to see a miracle. Others wanted their sick and broken bodies healed. Others wanted to see if the Revolutionary who would overthrow the Romans had really come.
With the growing crowds, came the desire to share the load. Jesus could have easily preached and healed until the cross, but the Gospel wasn’t to work that way. Jesus called those he wanted. He called 12 men on the mountain, 11 apostles and one hypocrite who would play his part, to preach his message and to perform miracles. He set these men aside to prepare them for sacred tasks and to show us that Christ’s people are set apart from those who would have him only to make their lives easier on earth.
The sacred Gospel is spread through Christ’s people. It is carried along by human hands under Divine aid. It shines out to the world through the saved sinner’s heart. But success does not come through self-promotion, but humility. For if the God of the Universe did not promote himself, and even often discouraged others from promoting him, what becomes of us when we attempt to spread the Gospel by self-promoting our ministries and programs? What becomes of us when self ambition is the key motivation for preaching a message of salvation that comes by the repentance of sins when faith in Jesus pierces our sinful souls?
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