Making Jesus Famous

“After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.  Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.  His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”  For even His brothers did not believe in Him.

Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.  The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.´- John 7:1-9

John refers to Jesus brothers in the first part of John 7, which are thought to have been the younger children of Mary and Joseph.  Consider that these children were raised with Jesus, saw His works, saw His Holiness, and yet John says they did not believe in Him.  The world and it’s desires has blinded many to who He really is.

What they did see in Jesus was a chance at fame.  While Jesus did not want to go to Judea to worship at the Feast of Tabernacles, as all Jewish men were to do, they urged Him to go there.  Their reasoning was that He needed to show His miracle working power to the Jews.  Yet Jesus knew that if He went there, they would seek again to kill Him, and that was not yet to come to pass.

Jesus never sought fame among people.  He never sought to be raised to a level of popularity, to “be known openly”.  Consider what would have happened if the Jews had tried to make Jesus King.  An army would have protected Him against crucifixion, the opportunity God planned for Jesus to lay down His life for us.

Jesus never sought fame.  In fact, He tried to escape it whenever multitudes of people sought to find Him.  He would send them away, or escape their presence.  He had a job to do, a plan from God, and He knew that we that loved Him on this earth would be His beneficiaries.  It was not out of hatred for our love for Him that He escaped the multitudes who wanted to make Him King.  It was out of His love for us. 

The fame of this world is not our goal today either.  Our goal today is to make Jesus, now crucified for our sins, most famous, so that others can come to accept His love and salvation. How do we do that?  We talk about Him!

We make lots of people famous, and all because we talk about them.  We made Caylee Anthony famous when she killed her daughter - because we talked about her.  We made Lance Armstrong famous when he won many Tour de France races on steroids – because we talked about him.  We made Michael Jordan famous for his miracle-like basketball skills – because we talked about him.  We made Nelson Mandela famous – because we talked about Him.  We made Lady Gaga famous – because we talked about her.  It’s time we talked about Jesus instead.