“…for he had healed many” Mark 3:7-12
Jesus withdrew from the city to the sea with his disciples. What a change of scene! It’s hard to imagine what this must have been like from Mark’s brief description, especially to our present generation accustomed to the ever-present news camera bringing sights and sounds from every event imaginable.
Mark says Jesus “withdrew,” but to a casual viewer it must have looked like Jesus was leading an invasion. People from Galilee followed him, and from around Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and Tyre and Sidon. (What? No Pharisees?) The crowds were huge, so big that Mark refers to them as a multitude and then twice again as a “great” multitude.
What drew them was what they heard Jesus was doing, and they flocked to him hoping he could do the same for them. They crowded in closer and closer, trying to touch him and thereby be healed, for he had healed many people. The press was so great that Jesus had the disciples keep a boat ready, whether for the safety of a quick escape or to use as a convenient preaching platform we are not told.
Also caught up in the crowd were those with unclean spirits. They might have come on their own, but more likely were dragged to Jesus by desperate friends and family. These would fall down before Jesus crying, “You are the Son of God!” Jesus would always silence them and warn them to say no more. This was not the time for that, though that day will come.
The realization that Jesus is God does not come by swaying with the movement of the crowd or getting caught up in a thousand voices. He will make Himself known to each of us in his own time. We do not need to worry about missing him or being too late. He is coming in time, at the right time. Are you ready?
Copyright 2019 David J. Cooley