The Crowds

Gospel: Mark 3: 7-12

In today's Gospel portion we find large crowds from all over Galilee and Judea making their way toward Jesus.  The modern Christian is utterly ecstatic over it all!  Look at those crowds!  This is exactly what we hoped for and wanted in ministry.  We look to monetize such situations, of course claiming to use it to help others. Meanwhile, the order for the pastor's custom jet has been placed from his 12,000 square foot mansion...

In any case, we find Jesus taking great pains to avoid the crowds as much as possible.  He repeatedly told people whom he healed not to tell anyone about it, but to simply offer thanks.  People did not heed that instruction, and now we have these crowds.  They are not following Jesus.  They are looking for healings and deliverances, and Jesus provides them because he cares for the people afflicted, not to satisfy the whims of the crowd, who continually look for ever more spectacles.

No, the crowd is not following Jesus, for it will not want to go where he is headed.  The crowd will instead turn on Jesus and push him to his execution.  Today we are reminded to avoid the crowds, to seek instead the voice of the Lord who tells us to just give thanks and to go about extending mercy and love to others.  In the infancy and Epiphany stories the characters heeded the voice of God and went about humbly following where they were led.  That remains our task - to follow Jesus and not the crowd.