When Jesus opened His ministry, He purposed not to draw a crowd by preaching some difficult messages and even driving His own hometown away and refused to use them for building His ministry. To further demonstrate He was not about crowd-drawing, Jesus began doing His miracles quietly, seeking no honor for Himself.
When Jesus was just getting started, He was preaching in Capernaum right after being rejected in Nazareth. He was doing what He had been doing before starting His miracles, and a demon spoke up. This demoniac had been in the congregation for some time, and no one seemed to notice, but then Jesus began to preach in power and authority, and the demon could not hide any longer. This demon then proclaimed Jesus to be the Holy One and was afraid that it would be sent to Hell early. Jesus immediately silenced him and drove the demon out. He would not let the demon give His position and identity away, even though what the demon said was true. Jesus had no interest at all in being promoted by a demon.
The first formal miracle of Jesus happened at a wedding. Jesus was invited and brought the disciples He had with Him (not all twelve may have been picked yet). The wedding planners made a very humiliating mistake. They either underestimated numbers or came out short on the wine because partway through the party, they ran out. Mary summoned Jesus to do something, and Jesus initially refused. But out of compassion for her and for the married couple, He summoned the servants to get water, which He turned into wine.
Another time, while out with His disciples, Jesus was approached by a leper. This man with leprosy must have heard about Jesus either through the wedding or something else, and he knew that Jesus could make him well. And Jesus had compassion on him and did what no man had ever done since he got his diagnosis: Jesus touched him. Unlike any other person, Jesus wasn’t made dirty and unclean by touching this man. Instead, the man was made well, and his leprosy was instantly healed. In that time and culture, to celebrate something, you went and told everyone about what you did or what happened. Jesus denied this man from telling anyone, but he should get his official report of cleansing so he could return to society without telling anyone. Jesus would take no glory for this.
This is in total contrast to the “miracles” we see from the “Word of Faith” movement, where they proclaim miracles take place constantly and on a regular basis. None of these “miracle workers” can do much of anything unless a camera or crowd is present. While they give lip service to God doing the miracles, all the attention is on them. This is ALSO an issue in some Reformed circles. There are preachers who are solid preachers and do so with authority, but they have a crowd’s attention, and they long for that attention. This is a problem everywhere. There are very few out there who truly handle their platform and ministry as Jesus did, seeking to deflect human attention. I know there are solid preachers who do not like the spotlight and have had it thrust on them regardless. The idolatry of men is a deadly trap when you have the gifts for a large platform, and it takes the utmost care and caution to survive it.
As an author and occasional speaker, there is an appeal to wanting a crowd because I want the truth to get out to as many people as possible. Jesus definitely felt that, but He also knew that the bulk of the crowds would only come for the show and for what they could get out of it. Jesus repeatedly had to repel crowds who only wanted a show. I, too, want people to hear the truth I put in my writings and my talks, but I am scared of a crowd because I know my issues with pride, being intellectually wired. It would be easy for me to use a popular name as a platform for me, and that is not how I am to operate. I am glad God did not give me a skill, let alone much of a desire, for marketing because if I had that, I’d fall into the trap of people-pleasing. With the messages that I bring, people-pleasing is the fastest way to lose the message and make oneself inept in service to the Lord.
Jesus didn’t want attention, so He showed only the minimal people needed to get started, but there were times Jesus did a miracle just to prove a point. Every single move Jesus made was strategically calculated, spiritually, to bring all things together to get both the people and the religious leaders to come and kill Him. By not being people-pleasing, He would not even attempt to fulfill misconceptions and false hopes based on a false understanding of Scripture. He would soon let people speak about Him, but He did not want popularity until it was necessary. The leper did not obey and told many people how he got healed; to avoid undesired public attention, Jesus kept to the smaller towns.
But soon, word would get out and around and Jesus, in His compassion, would heal people and word would spread even more. This would get the attention of the Pharisees. Over the next two weeks, we will look at two of Jesus’ earliest dealings with the religious leaders: one who saw something in Jesus he could not explain and others who challenged His authority to teach. Through these interactions, Jesus would prove His authority to teach, to heal, and to forgive sins.
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