GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 3:9
The Crush
Recently, I was driving on a two-lane highway where there were no passing zones. The weather was bad, so I was driving at the posted speed limit. The driver behind me, however, seemed to be anxious to get to his destination, for he followed close, perhaps one car length behind me. I wondered if my exhaust might melt his bumper. Perhaps he had never heard of the three-second rule, according to which, when the car in front passes an object, you should start counting: “One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three.” If you pass the same object before you finish counting, you’re following too closely. Or the one-car-length distance for every 10 mph. At any rate, when I had an opportunity, I pulled aside and let the driver speed past. Ironically, I pulled up beside the driver two stoplights later.
The tendency to crowd caused the death of 21 people and the injury of 652 at the Love Parade music festival in Duisburg, Germany on July 24, 2010. The free-access festival reportedly attracted 1.4 million people. There was a long tunnel through which the crowded needed to pass to get to the festival venue. The tunnel became crowed and people began to push forward crushing 13 women and 8 men.
St. Mark said that when Jesus and his disciples left a synagogue where Jesus argued with the Pharisees about healing on the Sabbath and then healed a man’s withered hand, a large crowd gathered around him on the shore of the Sea of Galilee because they had heard about his teaching and miracles. People came from all over Palestine to be near Jesus. “And he said to his disciples that a small boat should stand ready for him on account of the crowd in order that they might not crush him.” (Mark 3:9) Mark said that this was a “great crowd,” but he doesn’t say whether Jesus used the boat. In a similar situation, Jesus did teach from a boat in order to avoid being crushed by the crowd (Luke 5:3).
There are several explanations for the huge crowd gathering around Jesus on this occasion, and one of them surely is that his teaching about the Father rang true in their hearts. That message still draws people to him.
Hmm. As I remember, it was Sunday when the driver followed my car so closely. Maybe he was in a hurry to get to the Father’s house. Perhaps.
Directory