Jesus’ Early Life
Think about any biographies of people that you have read. Usually, they are written about influential people who have made a significant impact in our world. They often start with their backstory to share their childhood experiences so that we can have a picture of the cultural, family, and historical context that shaped who they would one day become.
What about Jesus? What was Jesus doing when he was a child, or when he turned 18? What about when he was 21? Or 25? The reality is that we really don’t know. He was the son of a carpenter, so we can assume that he learned the family trade, as was common in those days, and was working as a carpenter himself. But what did his daily life look like? We really don’t know. We read about the story of his birth in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospel accounts, but aside from a short story about Jesus in the temple at 12 years old, we have no specifics about his childhood, teenage years, or him as a young adult. Why is this? I mean, we are talking about the king of kings and lord of lords who we are called to follow, the one whose life we are supposed to imitate and obey in everything, yet there is very little information about his earlier years that has made it into our day. Why is this?
Could it be that the lack of information is actually a lesson in itself – another example to imitate? Perhaps the same Holy Spirit that inspired the apostle Paul to instruct the Thessalonians to “make it [their] ambition to live a quiet life” was also leading Christ to live a quiet life (1 Thessalonians 4:11). The uniqueness and value of a quiet life is something worth considering in our digital age where everyone is striving for their moment in the spotlight.
Seeking Our Own Glory
We read about Jesus’ first disciples arguing about who is the greatest (Matthew 18, Mark 9, Luke 9) and jump straight to criticizing them. How could they be walking with and not meant to be seeking glory for themselves? Then we turn around and judge our own greatness by how many followers we have on social media, or how many people liked our most recent vlog, or how many people listened to our podcast, or purchased our book. In Jesus’ day, as well as in our day, there is a strong temptation to seek influence and fame for ourselves.
Jesus Didn’t Pursue Large Crowds
This temptation to pursue our own greatness has been aggressively accelerated in the last 20 years with the rise of social media. So often we make it our ambition to start a YouTube channel that gets one million subscribers, or to get our book onto the New York Times bestseller list. We all want to make a difference and leave an impact on our world, but what if God isn’t calling us all to speak to the masses? In the pages of scripture, do we see Jesus trying to gather large crowds? It seems like more often than not, when crowds gather around Jesus, he sends them away. After launching his ministry by powerful teaching and healing many people, Jesus steps away to be alone and the disciples come to Jesus tell him “Everyone is looking for you.” Translation – “Jesus, everyone is excited about you, your preaching is the talk of the town; your miracles are trending on social media.” There is a lot of hype and excitement in this moment and it would be very tempting to embrace the new found fame and try to rise to the top to compete with the other rabbis of his day, but what Jesus does next is very interesting. He tells his disciples that it is time to “go to the next town”. Instead of embracing the excitement and trying to gather an even bigger crowd the next day, he leaves and starts over with people who have never heard of him.
Another time after Jesus feeds a massive crowd of more than people, he withdraws to a quiet place again, but the crowds seek him out and when they find him, he delivers his one of his most controversial sermons and many of his disciples turn back and no longer follow him (John 6). At other times, people come to Jesus and ask to follow him and he turns them away (Matthew 8). It seems that Jesus was more interested in his disciples having a genuine and authentic relationship with him than having more followers than the other teachers of his day. In the end, Jesus did get more followers than the other teachers of his day. In fact, he has more followers than anyone else in all of history, but the model that he sets for us in living a simple, quiet life and pointing people toward an authentic connection with God is something that cannot be discarded.
Good Intentions Don’t Nullify the Commands of God
In our sometimes-well-intentioned efforts to quantify our ministry and maximize our positive influence for the gospel, we have set goals for the number of books we write and sell, podcast listeners we get, people who subscribe to our social media channels, or even the size of our regular church attendance. It might be wise and responsible to try to maximize our gifts for the sake of the gospel and the unreached around the world, but far too often what starts off with the right motives can slip into us trying to increase our own personal brand and increase our name and prestige. It is a dangerous trap to fall into and most of us are not mature enough to handle it.
Don’t measure your influence by the numbers. No matter how noble our intentions may be, they do not and cannot nullify the commands of God. Let’s not aim for success by the standards of the world. Instead, let’s be faithful with the gifts that God has given us and love the people that God has put around us. The Holy Spirit’s command to “live a quiet life” hasn’t disappeared in the age of social media – in fact, it has only become all the more important. In an age where everyone is seeking to glorify themselves, followers of Jesus live counter-culturally by living to glorify Christ!
