MARK 3:7-12 MEDITATION - THE POPULARITY OF JESUS PART 2
JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES
Jesus and his Disciples
"Jesus withdrew with his disciples". It is to be noted that Jesus did not withdraw with the crowd, he withdrew with his small group of disciples. The crowd followed Jesus, but Jesus did not withdraw with them. In these verses this small group of disciples would be almost forgotten if they had not been mentioned as leaving with Jesus and in another indirect reference to them when asked to prepare a boat for the safety of Jesus. It is therefore, easy to forget that this small group or community is present. It is a hidden presence, hidden but important.
In this small group we have the beginnings of what will become, on the day of Pentecost, the foundation of the new covenant community of the Spirit, the new wineskins that will contain the wine of the Spirit-filled covenant, the universal church. The community is a sign of contradiction, the little flock of the kingdom (Luke 12:32), the little mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32).
Here we have a vast multitude of people converging towards Christ, a foreshadowing of the universal nature of the church. This small community is to be seen against this backdrop of the universal appeal of Christ. We are naturally invited to compare and contrast the two.
The Crowd and the Group of Disciples
The contrast between the two categories, the crowd and the disciples in this episode, is significant. The first obvious contrast is one of size. The enormous size of the vast multitude compared to that small group of disciples with whom Jesus withdrew from the city of Capernaum is, indeed, striking. Jesus ministers to all, but with a special predilection for his small group of disciples. Together they form a community to whom a global mission will be entrusted.
They offer no real protection for Jesus against the crowd that is pressing in upon him. They are very vulnerable. Their significance lay in the fact that they were chosen by Jesus and are building up a vital in-depth relationship with him, constantly, enjoying his presence. The crowd was not chosen by him, they imposed themselves on him and constituted a threat. Their encounter with Jesus was a one-off event. They would then presumably return to their own situation, to their everyday lifestyle in the place whence they had come.
The small group of disciples constitute a community. A community is a place of unity, cohesion and loyalty, conducive to discovering self and achieving integration of self. There is no cohesion in the multitude, it is a mass of individuals whose approach to Jesus and whose unity was need-orientated. There is nothing outside of their need that brings them together.
A community is for growth, for strength, for union, for learning. It is rooted in relationships. And the pivotal relationship is with Jesus himself. In the multitude individualism prevails, in community, it is communion, com-union, com-unity, that prevails, ‘cum’, Latin = with.
No personal relationship is established between those in the crowd and Jesus, nor indeed among themselves. Community creates a sense of belonging, the multitude creates nothing and is potentially dangerous (“lest they crush him”). We are threatened by the multitude, reassured by the community.
Within the multitude relationships are unstable, within the community there is commitment and a degree of stability. Within the community there is integrated spirituality. In the multitude there is no spirituality, no inner integration, they are spiritually bankrupt. They are not there for the teaching. They have one thing in mind – healing; the gift, not the giver. They either came to Jesus to receive the gift of healing or out of curiosity. They were not focusing on Jesus himself but on what he could do for them and give them: "all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him" (v.10).
In these verses this small community has no prominence. However it will gradually develop as the narrative proceeds. It has already greater prominence in the next episode, verses 13-21, and will later attain universal prominence. It will become the universal church, which will continue the mission of Christ on a global scale. This community will not only be with Jesus but will also become Jesus, the body of Christ. This small community of disciples, as church, will, later incorporate the vast multitude from all areas.
A Christian is not an isolated person among a vast multitude asking for a one-off experience with the Lord. A Christian is born into a new life (baptism) with a new network of relationships (as adopted sons of the Father), inspired by a completely different mindset (that of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16, Phillipians 2:1-5), who grows in a community (the church), bound together in a relationship that goes beyond the community itself (with Christ).
In the multitude everyone is so near, shoulder to shoulder, yet so far apart. United only in unruly desire, producing an unruly, dangerous crowd. Not so the community. Calm, near each other and united in the presence of Jesus, “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). The lives of everyone in this community are hidden with Christ in God. The obsession with desire leaves no room for relationships. Not so with the community.
In the crowd we have an image of broken humanity. Unlike the Pharisees, they recognise their need and turn to Christ, albeit for the wrong reasons. It is a multitude in need of salvation. It is, therefore, a crowd ready to enter into that global community to be transformed from an anonymous crowd into a vibrant community.
No common interest can create a stable community; it finds its unity beyond itself. Never inward-looking. Focusing on one’s individuality does not build a community. Christianity is essentially a network of relationships rooted in the divine. It brings the eternity of the kingdom to the here and now, in us and among us, not only beyond us. This is the function of the church of which this small group of disciples is the seed.
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Mark 3:7-12 Text and Questions
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