This one comes with a story, so please bear with me as I make my point.
Easter Sunday my wife and I actually went to church somewhere–something we have done only once since we left our last church home several months ago. We went back to the same place we visited before because we have a few friends that go there. We got there a few minutes late, leaving us to park across the street at the Lowes because of the church’s overflowing parking lot. We were greeted by several smiling faces on the way in and then found it tough to find a seat once inside. There were people standing in the back of the worship area cause the place was absolutely packed. Luckily one of the greeter people found us a couple seats.
The worship was really good, several songs I have never heard, but still enjoyed mouthing along as the band rocked out in worship. It was good, but not showy if you know what I mean. We got to enjoy the Lord’s Supper. Then the pastor shared a fairly simple message comparing some of the miracles of Jesus to his death and resurrection. They ended the service with a song and everyone went on their merry way. We stayed around and talked with our friends a bit and headed to lunch at my parent’s house.
The thing that caught me off guard the most were some comments during the pastor’s message. The first was about the feeding of the 5 thousand and why Jesus did it. He already taught them because he had compassion on them, so it wasn’t so Jesus could teach longer. Jesus wasn’t trying to prepare them to go and do some huge task for His Father or trying to get them to go invite their friends. It’s really simple, he wanted to feed them because it was late and time for hungry people to eat. Jesus wanted to meet their need of hunger plain and simple.
The pastor commented briefly on Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine and asked why he did it. His response was “Jesus turned the water into wine so the party could go on”, which got some laughs, but is so true.
Then I got to thinking about the rest of Jesus’ miracles and tried to think of why Jesus performed them. None of the answers I came up with pointed to anything other than bringing glory to the Father and meeting people’s needs. The only exception was Christ’s death and resurrection–in which Jesus became a means to an end for His father and for our sake. Jesus became the “utility” by which we are saved.
Jesus wasn’t trying to use people for some greater purpose, he wasn’t trying to develop some large conference or entertain crowds or put on some sort of circus show that would attract more people. He wasn’t trying to get all of his followers to go “reach” people for himself. He wasn’t about making a name for himself. It was really simple, what he was trying and succeeded in doing was glorifying His Father and meeting people’s needs–thus pointing them to the Father.
It was very refreshing to go a church and not walk away feeling overwhelmed by entertainment and underwhelmed by the insistence to perform acts that undermine the value of the Gospel.
It was refreshing to go to a place that seemed to understand that when Jesus performed miracles, he didn’t do them as a means to an end. Jesus didn’t feed the 5,000 and post pictures somewhere showing how many people were there. He didn’t turn water to wine so people would like him more, nor did he use the testimony of the healed blind man to bolster support for himself. Jesus came to be a sacrifice for the sin of many and point those who would call upon his name to the Father. It is my hope and prayer that the Church as whole will pray along with John the Baptist, asking that He might increase and we (and all of our great utility) may decrease.