“Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.” Mark 3:7-8 ESV
Reflection: how far would you walk to meet Jesus?
If you look at a map of the Middle East, current day country of Israel and the surrounding countries like Libanon and Syria, you start getting a sense for how far people walked to see, and possibly meet Jesus. The city of Sidon is north of Tyre in southern Lebanon, and still exists today. It is approximately 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus did much of His ministry. Jerusalem is even further away, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) to the south. We see from the focus verse today that a great crowd had already started following Jesus. Not just from the local towns like Capernaum and Tiberias, but from a huge surrounding area. They must have walked for many days to meet Him, perhaps even a week or longer, even bringing or carrying their sick. There was no mass transportation. Some might have had a donkey, but for most it was a long, treacherous journey.
The word of Jesus must have spread like wildfire through the entire region. Can you think of any person or event today that you, or anyone you know, would walk a week for through the heat, sleeping on the ground at night, etc, to go see? We complain after a couple of hours if we have to stand in line for something. Or walk a couple of miles. Meeting Jesus must have been so out of this world amazing, so mind blowing, that the people would do almost anything to meet Him. Even if we think through history, no other than Jesus has had this effect on the people. So what was it about Jesus that they were so drawn to?
We read in this paragraph from Mark, “And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”” Mark 3:9-11 ESV. Not only did Jesus heal their illnesses physically, but He had “authority” over unclean spirits. Over the devil and the demonic spirits, as we see here that “they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” The unclean spirits knew who He was, and they trembled as we see time and again. But what the people longed for the most was much deeper. It was the truth. It was grace.
It was the glory of Jesus.
John wrote “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 ESV. He wasn’t like anyone else who has existed. And, it is a bit thought provoking to contemplate what we would have done, if we lived in those days. If we lived almost 100 miles away from where we heard Jesus was. Would we have dropped everything to walk 200 miles (round trip), for 2-3 weeks, just to have a chance to see Jesus? The good news is that we don’t have to, we can open His word any time and meet with Him.
But, do we?
If we have received Him, and believe in His name, we are born again. Born of God, a child of God, heirs to the kingdom with Christ. Thinking of what people back then were willing to do to have a chance to meet Him, let’s honor Him by daily seeking Him and spending time with Him.
