David Bahn – Reflections

Matthew 4:23-24

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread…

Matthew describes Jesus’ ministry as one of teaching, proclaiming and healing. He then tells us that Jesus’ fame spread all over the area. We take this quite for granted here 2000 years later. We take Jesus’ ministry for granted: what He did and said and taught. But we also take for granted that Jesus’ fame spread.

That Jesus taught us about God is neither surprising nor remarkable; He is God’s Son, and there have been many who teach about God. Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God is no less remarkable on the surface of the fact. And while Jesus’ healing ministry seems to be most remarkable, there must be another explanation for Jesus’ fame. For Jesus’ fame is not the short-lived version of Billy Sunday or any of a host of bygone faith healers.

Something is at work here that goes beyond what is obvious. Jesus’ fame will spread not just because He’s a good preacher, teacher and healer (He certainly is all three!). Jesus’ fame will spread because He is the embodiment of God’s mission to save the world. The world needed to be reminded of God’s kingdom’s presence. The world needed to be taught about God. The world needed healing. The world needed to be saved. Jesus is God in the flesh doing only what God can do.

I remember being at a Promise Keepers event several years ago at Texas Stadium in Irving. The speaker was well-gifted and shared some well-aimed insights. Then came a call for men to come forward and rededicate their lives to Christ. It seemed to me to come out of the blue. The call to repentance was not compelling. It didn’t seem well-aimed. Nor was I motivated to respond in the least. I was actually concerned that it would take the wind out of the stadium so to speak because it would surely fall flat.

I was wrong: thousands streamed to the front of the stage that day. Men flowed down the aisles and from their seats from the farthest reaches of the stadium. The call was not manipulative. It was really rather simple: A call for men to be men of God – faithful fathers, husbands, workers, neighbors. It was a call for men to take the word of Christ seriously. It was not particularly eloquent; it was powerful: God was at work.

Two thousand years after Jesus began His ministry, His fame still spreads. In the affluence of North America or secularized Europe it may not be obvious. But the existence of thousands of churches – city and country, small and large, struggling and successful is evidence of God’s on-going work in the world. We may not be eloquent. We may not be persuasive. But as long as we are part of God’s mission His fame will be spread through us.

Today is a good day simply to be thankful that Christ’s fame has spread to you, that you have been called to faith in Jesus, and that He is still at work in the world. Perhaps that would be your greatest witness – a heart filled with thanks to God for his work in you.