Friday 26 October 2018

Psalm: Psalm 21:1-7

Background

While he was on tour the crowds were a bigger problem than the religious police. He tried to escape to the lake with his followers, but the crowds tagged along – he was famous in Judaea, Jerusalem, Jordan and Syria. The crowd was so strong that he asked his followers to get a boat ready so that he wasn’t pushed into the lake. He healed hundreds, with many more who were ill pushing forward to touch him. There were some with serious mental health problems who fell down in front of him and shouted: “God’s Special One”, but he made them keep quiet.

I like to think of Jesus as “more famous than the Beatles”! He was tremendously attractive throughout his ministry, and it's only when things get really difficult that he is on his own, though even in those moments his female followers, those who were most devoted to him, were nearby. He did not want fame or mass evangelism; he did his best to put people off, even going too far at times (see John 6 and what he says about eating his body). We should never forget that Jesus is still very appealing to people (see the resource ‘Talking Jesus’), and it is his followers that get in the way, as they do a few times in the Gospels. The Gospels tell us to be about Jesus.

To Ponder

• How can we make our faith about Jesus rather than theology or any of the other churchy things that it can become?
• What are your reflections on the attractiveness of Jesus?