AP

Mark 12:12   Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them.  But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

What a sad commentary this is on our ‘fallen’ human nature!  Here was a wonderful man, a God-Man, a wise healer, being loved and sought by the ordinary, sin-sick, desperate common people – the ‘crowd’ – while the rich and powerful religious elite were bent on getting rid of him altogether because his popularity was threatening their long-established and well-cultivated power-base.  But their hands were tied, and they were prevented from achieving their aim because they were ‘afraid of the crowd’.

So often we can remain blind to the obvious because of political expediency and preconceived customs and traditions.  It is no wonder Jesus declared, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3).  The more sophisticated and worldly-wise we become, the harder it is for us to take hold of, and embrace, the saving grace of the Gospel with all its comfort, hope and power.  And unless we do this, the Saviour will remain our ‘enemy’, threatening our autonomy and challenging our claim on the right to run our own lives – to ‘do it my way’.

I feel sad when families have asked me to take the funeral of a loved-one, and wanted the service to include the departed person’s favourite song: Frank Sinatra singing, “I did it my way” as if this summed up their whole philosophy of life and worldview.  How much more comforting and rewarding it is to admit that we are sinners who need a Saviour, and to find this Saviour in Jesus, the Christ.

God designed us in his own image and in such a way that the very best outcome always comes from doing it his way.  The fundamental expression of sin is to denounce this truth and to do what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden.  Because we all inherit their DNA, such an attitude is our default disposition, a disposition which can only be ‘cured’ by the Holy Spirit doing his miraculous work of regeneration in our hard, egocentric hearts.

God’s eternal promise through the prophet Ezekiel as he foreshadowed a Saviour was: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

Let us all identify with ‘the crowd’ of Jesus’ day, and not the experts in religious practice.

– Bruce Christian