“When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone sick with some ailment or other brought them to him. One by one he placed his hands on them and healed them. Demons left in droves, screaming, "Son of God! You're the Son of God!" But he shut them up, refusing to let them speak because they knew too much, knew him to be the Messiah.

He left the next day for open country. But the crowds went looking and, when they found him, clung to him so he couldn't go on. He told them, "Don't you realize that there are yet other villages where I have to tell the Message of God's kingdom, that this is the work God sent me to do?" Meanwhile he continued preaching in the meeting places of Galilee.”  (Luke 4:40-44, The Message) 

Recently, during a Sunday school lesson at church, I was asked to reflect on this passage by placing myself in the midst of it.  I always feel a bit awkward doing that sort of exercise, especially when it then involves having to hear 21st century suburban American attitudes projected onto 1st century people. (like, for example, I seriously doubt that Mary and Elizabeth spent quality “girl time” together decorating the nursery, but hey, if that’s how that passage comes alive for you, then more power to ya.) But as I was thinking about this particular passage and trying to imagine what it would have been like to be part of that crowd holding Jesus back, I realized that not much has changed since then.

Here was a group of people amazed by the great things Jesus was doing for them.  They’d had their mountaintop experience, been personally changed by Jesus, and wanted to keep that high going.  Can you really blame them for holding onto this Jesus and preventing him from continuing on in his ministry?  But Jesus rebukes them, saying that there are others that he needs to tell the message of God’s kingdom to.  In other words, he tells them “Guess what, this isn’t about you.  I healed your sick. I released your oppressed.  Now go and do likewise or else get the hell out of my way!” (or something to that effect). 

And all too often we are just like them. 

We meet in our churches all decked out to glorify this man who did great things for us.  We sing the happy songs about how much he loves us.  We do our devotions about how we can keep feeling close to Jesus. We ask Jesus to bless us and work powerfully in our lives.  We stand in wonder, in awe, in amazement and marvel at his wonderful deeds. And we keep coming back for that next hit, that next mountaintop experience, that next spiritual high. We cling so tightly to him demanding that he keep catering to all of our needs that we have in effect prevented the message of the Kingdom of God from

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spreading.

When our faith becomes just another manifestation of “it’s all about me,” we forget to uphold the values of the Kingdom and live as Jesus called us to live.  We forget to serve the poor, we forget to rescue the oppressed, we forget to bring healing to the sick.  We forget that we dwell in God’s Kingdom and that God “cannot bear our evil assemblies” until we stop doing injustice (Isaiah 1).  In our eagerness to celebrate all that God does for us, we have held Jesus back by not being out there spreading the Kingdom message with our hands and feet.

But this barrier we’ve erected around Jesus comes not just from sins of omission.  Some are actively encouraging believers to ignore serving others in favor of basking in a me-centered faith.  A popular Christian author recently had a series on his blog on how to bring younger generations to Christ.  His advice was to entice them with this sort of narcissistic faith.  He wrote, “The gospel is not a message about what we need to do for God, but about what God has done for us.  So get them with the good news about who God is and what he has done for us.” (http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2009/10/23/reaching-the-next-generation-amaze-them-with-god/").  This has become more than just clinging to Jesus, holding him back; it is now about actively substituting the message of the Kingdom with the gospel of our own self-fulfillment.

I am reminded of the lyrics of the Woodie Guthrie song “Jesus Christ” (as recently brilliantly covered by U2) - "Well if Jesus was to preach what he preached in Galilee, They would lay Jesus Christ in his grave." When Jesus preached the message of the Kingdom in Galilee they missed the point.  They wanted the goody, but not the commitment and the hard work.  And in the same manner we have so silenced Jesus Christ in the name of Jesus himself that I don’t doubt that we would lay him in his grave if he came preaching today.  And that Jesus would have every right to look at the church today and say like he did to Peter, “get behind me Satan!” or at least say what he (sorta) did in Galilee “go and do likewise or else get the hell out of my way.”

Julie Clawson is a writer, mother, and former church planting pastor.  She is the author of the forthcoming Everyday Justice (IVP) and blogs at julieclawson.com.