The Way Jesus Did “Ministry”

For the past few weeks, I’ve been stuck on a passage in the Gospel of John.

“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’” — John 5:19

The implications of this statement are far-reaching.  Jesus did nothing unless he first saw Father doing it.  Think about it.  Jesus comes to the pool of Bethesda, a place filled with the sick and dying.  Everyone is waiting for their own personal miracle.  This Jewish man steps foot into a sea of need and interacts with only one lame man.  

“Do you want to get better?” he asks him.  Notice, this is an exclusive offer for only one.  The rest of the crowd is waiting, watching, hoping that Jesus will come to them and repeat the same scenario.  However, the time never comes.  The lame man is healed and a few verses later we see that Jesus is no longer at the Pool of Bethesda; he’s in the Temple.

Why didn’t he heal the rest of the people?  That is the wrong question to ask.  We begin with our assessment of the situation.  We start with the crowd of people and consider that factor to be the most significant.  

Let’s review what Jesus said to the Jews shortly after healing the lame man: “The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing…”

Jesus based every action on what Father was doing.  His “ministry model” was simple and relational.  The needs of the crowd were secondary to Jesus’ need to see what on the heart of Father.

Question: What do you think of this approach to ministry?  How do we position ourselves to see what Father is doing?

One Response to “The Way Jesus Did “Ministry””

1. Karen says:

   January 15, 2009 at 5:48 pm

   Hi Matthew, this may seem all too simple of a response. But it seems to me that anything “we” do that is not what the Spirit of God, who is Father, shows us …it is not going to come to anything and actually may cause confusion. When we move without an unction from Spirit/Father we are on our own.

   Often people want to follow what they believe the Word says and do not follow the Spirit of God. Which I believe is what this scripture is referring to …the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing. If Jesus CAN DO NOTHING of himself, I am sure that I can’t either.

   Your question how do we position ourselves to see what Father is doing? the obvious answer is of course read the Word, so you know HIS nature and character…this helps us to know the difference between our nature (which is sin) and His when He is showing us something. AND spend time with Him asking Him these questions.

   The nature of God vs our Nature:

   For instance, many times our nature would have a hard time believing that Jesus would walk by those others who needed healing and heal “the one”. But His ways are higher than ours and when we realize that He knows all and actually has a bigger plan than our minds (souls) have, we will find that we need to be obedient to Him. Which usually is where we have to crucify flesh and do what He shows us and not what “we” would like to do. (For some that would be to do nothing at all)(because of fear)

   It seems to me Jesus offended many and our nature would want to be the nice guy/gal and heal them all. Sometimes He is more interested in our obedience than what we would logically(soulishly) think.

   That’s my two cents for tonight (:

   Thanks for all the great articles and blogs Matthew!
   Keep it up friend!