7 Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; 8 hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. 9 He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; 10 for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. 11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” 12 But he sternly ordered them not to make him known. Mark 3:7-12
The temptation this morning is to read this text and see “Jesus the Rock Star”.
For reasons unclear to most of us, the “cult of celebrity” is one of the more dubious contributions that our modern culture has produced. Why crowds of photographers should clamor around as Paris Hilton stops for a donut on the way to the gym is absolutely beyond me. I don’t care if I ever see a picture of Beyonce’s new baby and even if I had a chance to meet Justin Bieber in person I wouldn’t ask for his autograph.
But obviously many people do care or it wouldn’t be such a huge business. Only in our modern age could the Kardashian clan be on TV.
Let’s not get distracted by the idea that Jesus drew huge crowds because he had suddenly become the “A list hero of the day”.
Instead, let’s remember what drew people to him in the first place. It was their gut wrenching pain.
It was a child with an unexplainable illness. A child born before modern healthcare, who lost oxygen in the birth process or was twisted in the womb and born without a functional leg or arm. It was the social stigma of an otherwise innocuous skin disease which cast a person outside of a normal life.
It was the bone-crushing poverty of a peasant class which did little but work and saw only enough of their produce to barely sustain their lives.
It was the debilitating loss of spirit that came from licking the boots of their Roman occupiers with dimly fading memories of a time when there existed something ethereal but meaningful called “national pride”.
It wasn’t like people who walked to see Jesus didn’t have anything else to do. It was simply that they had nowhere else to turn.
Let’s take a moment this morning to realize that Jesus attracted people who were hurting – and people who would soon be out to hurt him. Jesus attracted such people because he gave them hope, he gave them help, he gave them healing.
Yesterday people gathered in worship in huge auditoriums and tiny country churches. Let’s remember two things this morning. All it takes is a gathering of two or three people for Jesus to be in the crowd. And the purpose of our gathering remains to equip people for a life that doesn’t ignore the pain of the broken, the lost, the poor, the sick, and the hopeless.
Let us pray: Dear Jesus, you are the hope of the hopeless, you are our Healer, our Helper. You give voice to those without a voice. You raise up an army of love for the sake of the world. You have blessed us that we might be a blessing to others. Give us eyes to see, a heart of compassion, and the will and ability to help others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Daily Devotions 
January 27, 2012 at 1:15 pm |
I love our Lord,
We were in an adult Sunday school class some years ago, the pastor leading class asked what we thought was Jesus’ greatest action and how it impacted our lives.
The answers ranged from making water to wine, walking on water, raising the dead, healing , His resurrection.
I simply said “the day he found my sorry rear end”
I sought Him but He found me , and it was out of pure desperation,I did not seek him to save my soul , I sought Him to save my rear end it was later I found that they are attached, and until that time those other miracles didn’t really mean much to me they were just stories, now I praise Him for all he has done,not just in my life, look at the people around that have been touched by His Grace and Mercy.
Lord thank you for this day, thank you for our lives , and salvation and ,healing.