Crowds can delude us. One of the dangers of crowds isn’t just that they overtly block us from Jesus. They can also subtly block us in that we become deluded and self-deceived. We can deceive ourselves into thinking that we are with Jesus simply because we’re in the crowd.
Crowds are essentially large masses of groupies. And groupies watch and admire, but they don’t actually form any real relationship with person they follow. They are fans, but not friends.
On February 2, 2020, 62,417 people attended the Super Bowl in Miami (maybe the last major event before all the shutdowns). Believe it or not, that was the second to the lowest attended Super Bowls in history. And 98.2 million watched it, which is also the lowest in the last 11 years. That said, that’s still quite a crowd!
The people at the Super Bowl were there.They got to see Patrick Mahomes lead his team to a comeback win in the last 6 minutes of the game. So, it might be easy to delude yourself into thinking that if you were there, you were somehow connected to the team. That you were there with your good friend, Patrick Mahomes (the quarterback) and your old pal, Andy Reid (the head coach). But the truth is, you’re not best buds with the stars of the winning team. You’re not with them – you’re with the crowd. And there is a big difference!
The tragedy is that this is exactly the kind of relationship many people have with Jesus. Of all the people in the crowd who saw Jesus perform His miracles, how many of them actually had a real relationship with Him?
Sadly, it’s no different today. Even the people who are in churches today. They assume that they attend church, so they are with Jesus. Worse, some think that since they once upon a time went to church, they are with Him. The folks who feel like they don’t need church at all. That their own vague beliefs are superior to organized religion. When in reality, they are not with Jesus, they are with the crowd.
Being part of the crowd around Jesus does not equal being a disciple of Jesus.
People can be deluded and self-deceived into thinking that they have nothing to worry about in terms of their eternal destinies because they’ve heard of Jesus. But there is a big difference between hearing about Jesus and actually hearing Jesus. This is why He came – that He could preach and that we would listen. That we would understand. That we would actually know Him. James 1:22-24 says:
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.