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People

             From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him… Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. (Matthew 4:17-20 & 23)

And today, we come to the crux of the matter. Jesus returned from His time in the desert and began to preach (v 17). He called disciples (actually verses 18-22, but I only shared 18-20). He traveled, taught, marketed (advertised the kingdom), and healed. One thing all those have in common is people. To paraphrase Indiana Jones, “Why did it have to be …people?”

It’s not that I don’t like individual persons. I may or may not like any given individual, and I’m not necessarily afraid of groups of people. The two categories that make me cringe are the theoretical, virtual individuals and groups, and mobs or collectives (many feet, one or fewer brains).

Not only did they all involve people, but they also involved Jesus in building relationships and working with the purpose of winning, convincing, or directly influencing others.

And, not only did they all involve people and winning, convincing, or directly influencing them, they were inconsistent in their method. He traveled, taught, marketed, healed, announced, and healed. That’s too many plates that had to be kept spinning. Yes, I say this recognizing that I can walk the dog, crochet, pray, and keep an eye out for critters to photograph all at the same time – but those are things that generally don’t involve people. Add people to the mix and things quickly spin out of control. The other stuff doesn't get done.

Imagine what would have happened if Jesus had thought, “Ugh, if I go there, I’m going to have to deal with those Pharisees? And Peter is going to be an embarrassment again. What if no one listens? What if no one gets it? Really, Father, the whole trial and crucifixion part is daunting enough, but can’t I focus on that and skip all this nonsense?” He didn’t, because He didn’t think about virtual people and mobs. He thought about real people. He’s God, and knew all the people in His appointment book for the day, and He loved them.

We don’t have the luxury of knowing who we have all our appointments with. We don’t know them well enough to know what they want or need. We have to guess or just muddle along and improvise. But even if Jesus weren’t God and didn’t know who He’d meet, He still would respond the same way. I’m convinced that He wouldn’t have speculated and fussed about the virtual folks and mobs. And He would have loved the actual, individual people He met. And, He would have let them make up their minds rather than assuming rejection and ridicule. He would have dealt with whatever actually happened, not with what He presumed would happen.

These are things we may need to learn if we’re going to have a real and effective ministry. I know I need to.

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