Matthew 14:34-6 – When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognised Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all who were ill to him and begged him to let those who were ill just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. (NIV UK)
Have you ever wondered how it was that word about Jesus spread so fast during the days of his ministry. The fourteenth chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, from which today’s verses come, is centred on Lake Galilee and the entire chapter sees him crossing the lake, walking on it, getting away from people via it and feeding and teaching great crowds beside it.
If I learned anything from our summer holiday to Norway this year, it was a lesson about inaccessibility and remoteness. Even nowadays, mobile phone signals are patchy in mountainous areas. In the days of Jesus, there was no mobile phone, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok and a myriad of other ways of communicating in the moment – and yet – word spread.
The culture of the day was such that our record of the events says it was the men who recognised Jesus and sent word. Now it would be everyone young and less young, of all descriptions, who would be doing the spotting and sharing, if a well-known figure turned up on the scene.
I wonder though, in the lives of our churches, how often we resort to modern media and modern media language and style to communicate about extraordinary things? We spend significant time thinking about these things and less time instinctively doing them. Why is that?
These Thoughts come to you via electronic media. Do you pass them on as you would the thoughts of the moment about anything else…Yes, we have our Facebook pages and publish service times etc but everywhere else, content is fast moving and up to date, exciting and relevant…is ours?
A Prayer
God of love, the Ministry of Jesus thrived on the back of its attractiveness through communication of the evidence of people’s eyes. We thank you that they saw and spoke; we pray for the quickness of mind to see and tell, in the moment, so your Church lives and breathes as it did before it was formally a Church, without walls and borders, in Galilee. Amen.