Article January 9, 1984 Issue

Public benefactors all!

GEORGE E. J. MAHON

"Public benefactor" may evoke a picture of someone of great material wealth who has established funds for the relief of poverty or for religious, educational, or research purposes. Such generosity is applauded and appreciated by right-thinking citizens; but it bears no comparison with that of the greatest public benefactor of all time.

Who is this? Christ Jesus has benefited, and is continuing through his example to benefit, mankind more than anyone else in the whole of history. He apparently had (and needed) little in the way of material possessions. He was not interested in political influence or powerful friends. However, he had behind him immense resources—resources utterly inexhaustible, much more valuable and far-reaching than any merely material or human resources.

What were these resources? They were spiritual. He had a profound and intimate knowledge of his heavenly Father, God. Indeed, he was endowed with spiritual authority, enabling him to heal at once a case physicians had failed to heal,^{See Mark 5:25–34 .} and cure all sorts of illnesses, including one instance where the patient had been ill for thirty-eight years.^{See John 5:1–9 .} He also raised the dead.^{See, e.g., Luke 7:11–15 .}