Crowds and people

When you see a crowd of people, what do you feel?  When you go to a concert or a movie or take public transportation, what emotions run through your mind about the people around you?  Is it mild curiosity?  Annoyance?  Perhaps indifference?

I'm probably a combination of all three.  I love people watching so there's always a part of me that's curious about the stories of the lives of the people that I see on the street.  But the majority of me is simply indifferent, followed by annoyed if any of them happen to get in my way or make life in any way unpleasant or uncomfortable for me.

I think that's a natural human reaction.  Here in Korea, it is very common, indeed.  While Koreans are famous for going above and beyond the call of duty with their friends, they're also famous for being incredibly rude to the people that they do not know.  They don't care about you, they're indifferent to your circumstances, and so they push and shove and ignore strangers with little or no disregard for their well-being.

That's why, if we contrast Jesus' behavior with ours, His reaction is all the more shocking.  Jesus looked at crowds and had compassion for them.  He saw masses of people and felt, no indifference or annoyance, but love.  After reading about this in Matthew 9, I tried to go to my school and see my huge classes of students as individuals worth loving, not as a homogenous whole.  It's a difficult, if not impossible task.

Perhaps that's why we're supposed to ask God for help on this journey of ours.  He knows that we cannot do it, and so He also knows that when we succeed because of His presence in our lives, that His name will be glorified and His plans further established, not ours.  That is, after all, the purpose of our existence, isn't it?

As you go about your day today, I encourage you to pay attention, looking for groups of people that you typically mentally homogenize.  Ask God to help you see them as people, not just groups, and to show you how to love them and have compassion on them, even if you don't know them.  Ask God to make you more like Him.  Ask God to teach you how to love.

Matthew 9:35-38

 ³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

From numbers to people

I've been looking into a lot of global urban issues lately.  Poverty, disease, drug addiction, sex trafficking...for some reason these issues really touch a nerve with me.  It's not the issue itself that touches me so deeply, but rather the staggering magnitude of it.  Drug addiction is rampant in every major city in the world.  Twenty-seven million people worldwide are enslaved in human sex trafficking.  In the United States, over 15% of the population lives in poverty - that number skyrockets to over 50% in some third-world countries.

The numbers are mind-boggling.  And, for anyone who wants to make a difference in these peoples' lives, they can be paralyzing, as well.  You, me, my neighbor down the street....all of us are just one person.  How could we possibly make a difference?

We cannot fix all of the problems in this world.  But we can make a difference.  So many people, because they cannot do everything, end up doing nothing.  "Be realistic," they say.  "How much good can one person really do?"  But being realistic is the most commonly traveling road to mediocracy.

I remember a story that I read years ago about an old man and his little grandson who were taking a walk on the beach.  They came across an astonishing sight - thousands and thousands of starfish, who had somehow all been washed up onto the shore.  They were spread out on the beach as far as the eye could see.  The little boy knew that they would die out there in the hot sun, and so he quietly went down to the water and started throwing them back into the ocean, one starfish at a time.  "What are you doing?" asked the grandfather.  "There's so many of them; you can't possibly make a difference."  The little boy pick up another starfish before he responded.  "I made a difference for that one," he replied, as he threw it into the water.  He picked up another one.  "And that one, and that one, and that one."

Yes, the numbers are sad and scary and overwhelming.  No one who tries to fix the bad statistics in this world will ever succeed.  You have to get to know the statistics, learn their stories, see their joys, share in their sorrows.  The statistics have to become people.  You have to care about something before you'll ever fight for it.  How many people do you have in your life who's causes you are willing to fight for?  Or are they all just numbers?

Matthew 9:1-13

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
 ¹ Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. ² Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man,“Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

 ³ At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

 ⁴ Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? ⁵Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” ⁷ Then the man got up and went home. ⁸ When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

The Calling of Matthew

 ⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

 ¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

 ¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’^[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”