Title: Healing Circus
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
The circus coming to town used to be a major entertainment event. I recall fliers being distributed in advance of the coming circus when we lived in Campinas, SP Brazil. It was often customary to have parades through town to entice the curious to pay their entrance fees to come see the marvels on display under the big tent. If we go back a couple of millennia, the circus was perhaps the only entertainment option to speak of, coming around only very seldom. There was a theater in Athens, the coliseum in Rome, and few other venues for major entertainment options. When Jesus came traipsing through the Judean countryside, it was a major event for many, if not most. They turned out for the circus, for the spectacle, for the entertainment value provided by this wandering preacher and miracle-worker with the kind of excitement of revivals in days past, when entertainment for crowds were limited options. Many were not really there to hear Jesus. They were there for the show, the unexpected. Are we seeking more than just a good show?
Jesus was not attempting to be a performer. He was not focused on theatrics. He was not trying to capture the attention of crowds by his prowess at telling stories or performing miraculous wonders before them. In today's passage of Mark, we find that he was specifically trying to get away from the crowds in order to spend time with the disciples to debrief their ministry experience and allow them some rest. He sent no one ahead with fliers, a herald's trumpet, proclamations of his coming, or even letting anyone know the next stop on his "tour." Rather than make a big deal of where he was going, he took them to unexpected and remote places that would be out of the way and difficult to find.
I remember a couple of times the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association held events near where we were living in Brazil. Billy Graham did not simply show up to preach at a gr ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
The circus coming to town used to be a major entertainment event. I recall fliers being distributed in advance of the coming circus when we lived in Campinas, SP Brazil. It was often customary to have parades through town to entice the curious to pay their entrance fees to come see the marvels on display under the big tent. If we go back a couple of millennia, the circus was perhaps the only entertainment option to speak of, coming around only very seldom. There was a theater in Athens, the coliseum in Rome, and few other venues for major entertainment options. When Jesus came traipsing through the Judean countryside, it was a major event for many, if not most. They turned out for the circus, for the spectacle, for the entertainment value provided by this wandering preacher and miracle-worker with the kind of excitement of revivals in days past, when entertainment for crowds were limited options. Many were not really there to hear Jesus. They were there for the show, the unexpected. Are we seeking more than just a good show?
Jesus was not attempting to be a performer. He was not focused on theatrics. He was not trying to capture the attention of crowds by his prowess at telling stories or performing miraculous wonders before them. In today's passage of Mark, we find that he was specifically trying to get away from the crowds in order to spend time with the disciples to debrief their ministry experience and allow them some rest. He sent no one ahead with fliers, a herald's trumpet, proclamations of his coming, or even letting anyone know the next stop on his "tour." Rather than make a big deal of where he was going, he took them to unexpected and remote places that would be out of the way and difficult to find.
I remember a couple of times the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association held events near where we were living in Brazil. Billy Graham did not simply show up to preach at a gr ...
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