We haven’t moved much in the past few weeks – we’re still with Jesus and his disciples as they criss-cross the Sea of Galilee, encountering one crowd after another, preaching, teaching and healing. But this week we'll see the scene from the perspective of John’s Gospel:
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.
John begins this section, “After this…” “After what?” we ask. In the previous chapter, Jesus healed an invalid at the pool of Bethsaida, once more landing in trouble with the temple leaders. As he tries to explain his relationship with his heavenly Father, he antagonizes them further. It doesn’t help when he says things like: “But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me.”
Throughout the Gospels, we see how much the religious leaders mistrust Jesus. He too often challenges the status quo, and they feel their authority threatened. But ordinary people flock to him. He is enveloped in crowds wherever he goes, people even running back and forth around lakes to get to where they see his boat headed. What draws these crowds to Jesus? We’re told it’s his teaching and his healing. He did not teach the way other rabbis taught, questioning and crafting complex arguments. He described this realm he called the Kingdom of God by telling stories set in everyday scenes – farms, vineyards, kitchens, pastures, business offices. He spoke of it as a place of grace.
And he demonstrated the reality of this realm through what John calls “signs,” miracles of healing, forgiveness and restoration. Jesus was fully present, compassionate, intuitive, creative – and filled with the Spirit. If we would make our churches centers of contagious faith, we need to model those qualities, inviting Jesus to make them real in us.
There are places in the world where people do throng to hear the Gospel, to receive its teaching, to engage in enthusiastic worship and experience healing. Yet few mainline churches in the West draw crowds – some see a trickle at best. To make ourselves feel better, we say, “Who needs a crowd? Probably just full of curiosity seekers. It’s quality, not quantity that matters.” That’s all true – and just maybe God would like our churches to be full of curiosity seekers and those craving meaning and purpose and spiritual connection. Better yet, God might love to see us out of our church buildings, bringing that power and love and joy to people in the course of their daily lives.
I get so consumed with the business of running churches, I don’t even know where or how I’d go about preaching and healing outside – though the internet is an active mission field calling to me. We don’t want to be intrusive, but we want people to know God is real and alive and present. Perhaps you’d join me in praying about the where and when and who. Where might you and your church be called to go beyond and make God known?
We don’t need to be obsessed with numbers, but neither need we fear expanding our reach. People still need the same things from Jesus they needed in his day, healing and understanding. If they know they will meet him through us, who knows – we may see throngs too.
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