Jesus Praciticed Publicly

What Did Jesus Do?

And he went all through Galilee…
Matthew 4:23

Considering how Israel had been eagerly longing for the coming of the Messiah, I am a little surprised that Jesus didn’t simply set himself up in a private practice, hang out a shingle that said, “Messiah,” and open up shop in Nazareth, or perhaps Capernaum, and wait for the people to come to him. I mean, wouldn’t you have expected they would beat a path to his door? It’s what enterprising young professionals do, isn’t it, go into private practice? But Jesus, it turned out, wasn’t that kind of Messiah at all. Jesus practiced publicly.

Jesus knew, from the very beginning, that he needed to start where the people were, not sit back and wait for them to come to him. Oh sure, as his fame spread, many did eventually seek him out. But the Lord never showed any inclination to turn from his very public, to a private practice. As the Father sent, so the Son went. Jesus was, after all, on a seek and save mission (Luke 19:10). Jesus, you see, was a where the action is kind of guy. And he really didn’t have time to sit and wait for people to find him, there was a genuine urgency to his work.

So, how come his Church seems largely to have missed this truth about the kind of Messiah/Savior Jesus was? Think about it. If anything, times are more urgent now than in Jesus’ day. Yet, most churches are in what amounts to private practice. They put up a building, effectively anchoring themselves to one place, and have walls and doors, and often beautiful but impenetrable stained glass, which separates them from the rest of the world, from people. Oh, yeah, they leave the doors unlocked, sometimes, and they have a big sign out front, perhaps with some witty phrases about things like “knee-mail” (prayer) on it, sort of by way of trolling for the lost. But very few congregations understand that, as Jesus was a Messiah on a Mission, so his Church is a fellowship of missionaries who he perpetually sends to continue his work of seeking and saving. In other words, we can’t really do church parked in a pew, or presiding in a pulpit, it’s simply too private for an enterprise that is supposed to walk in the footsteps of the Savior. For, you see, Jesus practiced publicly, and so must we.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4