Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and good news is preached to the poor.” Matthew 11:4-5
We all know about Jesus’ miracles, how he went about the countryside proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom of God and then proving that he was the One who was bringing it to pass by performing hundreds of miracles like those he cited in Matthew 11:4-5, when John the Baptist asked for proof that he was “the one who was to come.”
We also know that his teaching produced many disciples that resulted in small, but growing, local groups of believers who would eventually become the Church, the body of Christ himself.
But what we can often miss when we think about the places Jesus went to is the effect of his visits: that is, wherever Jesus went, he produced permanent change for good. The blind he cured were not just temporarily able to see while he was there with them. They could see long after he left. The lame were not simply able to walk in front of him. They could walk for the rest of their lives. And the communities that Jesus and his followers formed were not mere transient associations, but churches that lasted for centuries.
Wherever Jesus went, he did good. But it wasn’t simply good feelings that he produced in others. It wasn’t an ephemeral good that quickly evaporated like so much of the good the world does. What he did produced a radical and permanent change in the hearts of those who heard him, a radical and permanent change in their relationship with God, a radical and permanent change in their relationships with each other, and a radical and permanent change in their circumstances. Wherever Jesus went, he produced enduring good.
And that is my challenge to each one of us. As followers of Jesus Christ, wherever we go, is the good that we are doing enduring good? Will it continue long after we are gone? For example, if we are loving our wife the way we should, we are producing enduring good. If we are loving our children and grandchildren the way we should, we are producing enduring good.
And if we are loving their widowed and single parents in our church and community the way we should, we are producing enduring good as well. Like Jesus, wherever we go, the good we do must be the kind of good that outlasts us.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
Learn how to mobilize your men’s ministry to meet every pressing need in your church here.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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