Gospel: Mark 3: 7-12
Throughout the Gospels we find Jesus rejecting two things time and again: the adulation of crowds and the notoriety of his identity. He continually flees from crowds and commands people to not tell others about who he is. Crowds are untrustworthy things: they continually build up people and inevitably tear them down and kill them. Such will happen to Jesus even with his best efforts to avoid the crowd and notoriety.
How often do we join crowds and put Jesus to death! How often our popular movements, our wedding of faith to politics, and our incessant exaltation of the one who humbled himself as king and Son of God! How often do we kill Jesus in our own hearts and in the hearts of others! Whenever we wed faith life to populist movements and politics we kill Jesus in body and soul, repeating the drama of the Gospels over and over again.
Where do we find Jesus in the Gospels? We find him healing those in need, feeding those who are hungry, at table eating ordinary meals with ordinary people who see themselves as sinners and righteous, in desert places alone with God. We will not find him in the crowds or in palaces of power, and when we do see him in synagogues and the Temple we find him rejected. Let us seek Jesus where he is, where our faith will be continually healed and nourished.
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