Would you have gone to see Jesus?
Word gets round: miracles, of course, and the teaching. But also that intangible something that draws crowds.
Gandhi’s 1930 Salt March attracted tens of thousands, and a quarter of a million are said to have attended Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in 1963. And on the bad side of the board, the Nuremberg rallies in the 1930s of Herr Hitler were attended by 700,000 or more.
In an age of no mass communication, something impressively simple happened: multitudes left work and normal family life to find and follow Jesus.
‘Jesus left the house and sat by the sea’ Matthew 13v1
No synagogue. No church building. No adverts. No stage…well there was a boat, at the last moment. No loudspeaker.
How many times have I left a house and sat by the sea? Hundreds of times probably. Certainly in my childhood living within 5 minutes of the North Kent Coast, I spent whole days on the beach. It’s so familiar and yet…
The ‘and yet’ is what marks this from the hippy-culture image that Jesus sometimes evokes: the long hair (in Hollywood films anyway), the sandals, the freedom of the road, the lack of social restrictions all appeal. And his denouncing of traditions that were strangling the life out of ordinary day-to-day Jews and turning faith in God into a worse form of slavery than they had endured in Egypt.
People weren’t just rejecting the present in some kind of hysterical youth cult; they weren’t ‘hanging out’ with The Man. He had things to say. He had stories to tell. Mystery parables. Wisdom. And that horrible word ‘Repentance’ was never far from his lips. And still they came.
He was ready. Had stories to tell, but had no control over who, if any, would arrive to listen
He was a curious example of living a simple, unorganised life, a life that didn’t revolve around his diary, and yet not a disorganised life. He had pondered hard; created stories to tell. This simple ‘Jesus left the house and sat by the sea’ is characterised by its complete separation from manipulation. He was ready. Had stories to tell, but had no control over who, if any, would arrive to listen.
Later, on the evening before his crucifixion, he prayed what has become known as the High Priestly Prayer recorded in John 17, in which the phrase ‘those You have given me’ is repeated at least three times.
That is the word of the Lord. Maybe for you. Maybe today. Certainly for me.
Lay down the stress of manipulating and networking, attempting to form relationships to fulfil your (probably legitimate) goals. Have your ‘stuff’ ready (for Jesus on this day he was armed with eight world-changing parables) and do the equivalent of ‘leaving your house and sitting by the sea’.
If you have food, hungry people will come.