Crowding Jesus

 "At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, 'Who touched My clothes?' 'You see the people crowding against you,' His disciples answered, 'and yet you can ask, 'Who touched Me?' " Mark 5:30-31....."Do we crowd Him or touch Him?" Vance Havner

Mark 5 tells of the story of the woman who had been bleeding for many years. This rendered her unclean according to Jewish law and made her an outcast. The last place she should have been found was in a crowd, and she should especially have not been near a revered teacher like Jesus. Yet she was. So desperate was she for His healing touch that she risked everything, the crowd's anger and possible violence, as well as the possibility, she thought, of Jesus outright rejecting her and sending her away. She would not be denied. She would lay hold of Jesus and receive her healing. She did touch Him and she was healed. We may glory in that, but there is another aspect to the story that we easily miss.

There was a crowd all around Jesus. There was always a crowd around Jesus. Surely in that crowd were countless people with needs. Desperate needs. Yet only one seemed desperate enough to reach out to Him, to lay their hands upon some part of Him. They wanted a real encounter with Him. That was the bleeding woman, but what about all the others? They were pressing in on Jesus, crowding about Him. They were the crowd, but we don't know who any of them were. We only know of the bleeding woman. It would seem that at that moment, with Jesus in their midst, it was she alone who had her desperate need met as she took hold of Him. The crowd pressed in, but not with the fervor and passion that she did. She had a hunger and desire for Him that somehow, the crowd seemed to lack. The crowd was observing Him. She was encountering Him.

I see a direct relation between this and what we call our regular "worship" gatherings. Every pastor and church wants to draw a crowd. Crowds come for lots of different reasons, Good music, good programs and ministries, even good fellowship. Jesus is named, but is Jesus the true focus? Are we, who are certainly part of the crowd, behaving like the crowd, or like the woman? Are we merely observing Him or encountering Him? Are we desperate to meet with Him, to encounter Him? Or are we just part of a crowd who each time we come together, watch Him pass by but never do more than observe His passing? Do we have a desire for Him that won't be denied, like the woman? Or do we have more in common with the watching crowd, seeing Him "pass by" each week in the singing, the preaching, the fellowship, but never laying hold of Him?

Lots of questions here. Sunday, worship day, is coming. Where will it find you? In the crowd with the rest of the onlookers.....or at His feet, experiencing Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O