The Crowd and Me

Gospel: Mark 8: 1-10

Jesus has a complex relationship with the crowd.  There are days when he works himself to utter exhaustion to heal as many people as possible.  At other times he flees from them to be alone with God.  Still other times he goes to great lengths to teach the crowd many things and feed them with bread and fish as he does in today's Gospel portion.  Then, there are times when he flees from the crowd when they wish to make him king, or put him to death.  

Is this not Jesus' relationship with each of us individually? Consider the times he has healed us, fed us, taught us.  Consider also the times in which we sought to make him king and he ran from us, the times we sought to put him to death in the person of our poor, marginalized neighbor, our lust for war and vengeful death penalty system.  Yet, despite Jesus' lack of trust in us, richly deserved, he continues to reach out to us and teach us, heal us, and feed us. 

Today we are with the crowd being fed loaves and fishes.  Where will we be tomorrow? Will we be on the hillside being taught, or in the street being healed? Will we be seeking to give him a kingship he does not desire, or kill him in the person of a neighbor we do not like? It is for us to decide what it will be, knowing Jesus will ever reach out to us to heal, to teach, to feed.