It Never Gets Old

“And great multitudes were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.”  Matthew 13:2

Because Jesus was also human, He would have experienced weariness from His long hours of traveling and teaching, but He never passed up an opportunity to speak truth to those who would listen.  Great multitudes would follow Him wherever He went.  I suppose there were many reasons why people followed Christ.  After all, His message was new and fresh and unlike anything the people had heard from their religious leaders.  All that they had ever heard was how they had to keep the law with special emphasis on all the burdensome rules, regulations, and traditions that had been set forth by the religious rulers.

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), He taught that the people were to love their enemies rather than hate them as they had always been taught (Matthew 5:43-48).  Jesus also told them to pray to their Father in heaven in private and not to make a big show of it like the Pharisees, and the same way when giving their money (Matthew 6:1-7).  Much of what Jesus taught was the opposite of what the people had heard from their religious leaders.  No wonder they were intrigued by this Man from Galilee.

Some folks followed Jesus out of curiosity, but others were genuinely interested in finding out more about this “new doctrine”.  While most Christians don’t consider Jesus’ doctrine “new”, it never gets old.  It is just as fresh and amazing as when Jesus first uttered His profound but simple words.  Remember when the lawyer stood up and asked Jesus which one of the commandments was the greatest? (Matthew 22:35-40).  Jesus replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  Volumes of “do this” and “don’t do that” all reduced to two simple statements: love God, love people.

Just imagine how the world would change practically overnight if people would just follow these two commandments.  What would folks have to give up to do so?  How about pride, selfishness, greed, hatred, and envy?  What would they gain?  How about peace and joy?  Sounds like a good deal to me.