crowded

 

The Lectionary brings together short passages from across the collection of books that make up the library of holy texts we call the Bible, and invites them to have a conversation, to discover what they have in common, and how they express themselves in diverse ways.

Today the Lectionary pairs an extract from the Letter to the Hebrews (early communities of apprentices to Jesus, mostly fellow Jews, scattered over a wide geographic area against the backdrop of the first Jewish-Roman War) (Hebrews 7.25-8.6, an even shorter extract given below) and an extract from the Gospel According to Mark:

‘Consequently he [Jesus] is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.’

(Hebrews 7.25, 26)

‘Jesus departed with his disciples to the lake, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; 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. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.’

(Mark 3.7-12)

The extract from Hebrews opens with the claim that Jesus is able for all time (even, perhaps especially, times of war) to save those who approach God through him...and continues stating that Jesus is separated from sinners. This latter claim seems a little odd, given that in the Gospels Jesus is often seen to be, and criticised precisely for, associating with sinners.

In the extract from the Gospel According to Mark, we see a large crowd of people approaching Jesus, and his withdrawing or separating himself from them. Indeed, throughout the Gospels Jesus is often seen attempting to withdraw from the crowds, either alone or with his apprentices.

In the Gospels we see Jesus responding to whoever is right in front of him, usually with compassion, sometimes with frustration, one person at a time, but he never gives himself to the crowds. He never seeks to draw crowds to him, to gather crowds or to ignite a popular movement. He does not trust the crowd, with good reason, for crowds are dangerous. They project their own agenda on a person, and they are fickle as hell.

This particular crowd has come together from across a wide area. Many have travelled great distances to be there. They come with a wide range of motivations. Some have come in hope of a spectacle. Some looking for an argument. Some because there is something that they want Jesus to do for them, a healing perhaps. Some, in all probability, simply swept along by the crowd, carried away.

Jesus separates himself from them, getting into a boat, withdrawing deeper into the life and livelihood of his disciples, of those he is in the process of calling to be his apprentices. Indeed, Jesus has already departed from one crowded space to be with his disciples, and now finds himself withdrawing a step further, from the shore onto the lake.

It is salutary to note how often in churches we lament that there is no crowd gathering at the place where Jesus has called us to withdraw with him. We long for the very crowds Jesus himself so often separated himself from. He is not looking for a crowd, for those who want something from God, some validation or cause; he is not interested in being swept up in something and carried away.

He is still able to save those who approach God through him.

Who will you invest your life in today?

What will you separate yourself from to do so?

How might this model or point to something enduring to a world that is constantly chasing the next new thing, because each new thing is constantly passing away?

Where is Jesus in this?