Drawn to the Irresistible

The Start

Good Evening, it is sooo good to be with you. It feels like such a long time ago that I was here last for a Download Week Away back in 2019 for the last one. It is just so great to be meeting with you all. Some of you will know who I am and some of you won’t. But I am so looking forward to meeting you and hanging out this week.

I wonder who the most famous person is that you have ever met? Someone who you think wow, they are so famous. Because I don’t know about you, but these people have an auora about them. Whether it is a TV presenter, musican, reality TV star. I’ve not met too many famous people but for me some of those famous people I am drawn to are football players.

Irresistible

The dictionary definition of Irresistible is this. Something that is too attractive and tempting to be resisted. For me, as a sports fan, going to a stadium and seeing the players is one of the allures of being a football fan. If you have ever been to a football match you will know the match day ritual of seeing the players come off the coach and perhaps if you are lucky signing something for you. I remember my first ever game at Old Trafford, Manchester United’s stadium, back in 1999. Before any of you were born, which makes me feel old. I was 9 years old and we went to see Manchester United v Everton. Me and my dad we are walking around the ground and there is a huge crowd gathering around two coaches. I remember asking my Dad what was going on and of course he said it is where the players enter the ground. I am there saying Dad Dad we need to go and see them. As we draw near I can’t help but using one of the advantages of being 2 foot 1. I’m now 2 foot 2 for anyone wandering. And I pierce through the crowd and come to the fence. I can see the players get off, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, David Beckham. People are shouting for them to sign autographs. As the crowd starts to thin out a guy gets off the coach and some people call him over. I lift up my programme and he signs it. I had no idea who this person was but I couldn’t help think I have got an autograph.

It was only on the way home I asked my Dad who that was and found out that it was Raimond Van Der Gouw, the substitute goalkeeper who noone had ever heard of. But I was sucked into the glamour of these players.

Intro

THis is a bit like our passage today. There is a crowd that comes and sees Jesus. Back a few months ago when I was talking to some of the leaders about the theme for this week, the whole idea of Irresistible comes from these 6 verses in Marks gospel, particularly this verse in Mark 1:45

The New International Version Chapter 1

Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Jesus was irrestible to the people around him, he was like a celebrity. Tonight I just want to capture some of what this passage is telling us about Jesus to introduce us this week.

Well this passage starts off with a man with leprosy coming to Jesus asking him to make him clean. The first thing to note is that this man who comes to him. He is a leper. To be a leper wasn’t just some bad disease. It made you a social outcast. They were forbidden to have any contact with people who aren’t lepers. They were forbidden to go to the market place or the temple. It would be like today not being able to buy food or meet with friends or loved ones. This past year we know part of what it was like to be self-isolated. Both as a country and I am also sure many of us have had to self-isolate whilst everyone else has gone about life. The leper would have been confined to this for their whole entire life. Anyone who came into contact with them would have to have self isolated. For the Jews it wasn’t just a health thing but also a social and spiritual thing. By coming into contact with him, Jesus was making himself unclean. A perfectly suitable response for a religious Jew would have been to stay well away.

But see in verse 41 it says that Jesus, moved with pity stretched out his hand. Physical touch is so important. I remember the first time hugging my Mum and Dad again after Covid. Imagine not receiving touch from another person for years. Then this guy called Jesus comes and stretches out. The beautiful thing about this image is that it’s Jesus who ‘stretches’ out his hand towards the leper. Before that it say’s that Jesus is moved with pity. I don’t know what you think of as pity. To me it sometimes sounds a bit patronizing. Aw there there. The word Mark uses denotes a deep sense of compassion that impacts you so much it physically affects you. Jesus was deeply moved. Of course Jesus heals him. It’s as if the Jesus is irresistibly drawn to the leper.

Jesus is compassionate.

Jesus tells him to be quiet

Jesus heals him. And by doing so this leper is freed from being a social outcast. His self isolation has ended. Jesus tells him to go to the priest to follow the protocol for being freed from illness. But the key thing that I want to pick up on is why Jesus tells the man, with a strong warning, not to tell anyone about this.

Is Jesus playing the humble card? Often famous people today do incredibly nice things and quite often they want people to notice. Its almost about a brand identity. It’s why car manufactrurers want you to know they are planting trees. Is Jesus wanting to appear humble in order that people think he isn’t looking for attention?

I think the key to why Jesus says this is in Mark 1:14. After John was put in Prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news. The reason I believe that Jesus told the man not to tell anyone is because, according to the gospel writers, the key point of Jesus ministry was the message nt the miracles.

I don’t blame them.

But the point I think Jesus is making, is that whilst healings are great. It isn’t the reason Jesus came, or at least the sole reason. The healings come from the overflow of the message that he has come to proclaim. The danger is that people come to see this healer for the healings and not for the message.

Tomorrow we will unpack what this message was. But for now I want to say that Jesus is about the message not the miracles. The miracles point to the message.

Lastly, as I alluded to in Mark 1:45. The leper can’t contain his excitement. He has being healed. I remember a few years later I had a season ticket at Old Trafford on the last day of the season I managed to get Alex Fergusons autograph. I used to go up by myself on a coach and I was sat in the stadium well before kick off and Ferguson came out and I managed to get his autograph. The first thing I did was call my Mum and tell her. The leper couldn’t hold it in. And we see that crowds flocked to Jesus. He was irresistible to the point where he couldn’t go into a town or village without causing a scene.

I wonder where you would have been in the crowd? At the start of this week, Jesus is compassionate, he is about the message and people flocked to him. But where are you at.

That is my question tonight? Where are you in the crowd.

The great thing about being involved in this event is that i have been so excited for a long time and have been praying for you all. It has been such a joy to do that.

When I was in my 20s I used to be a team leader at an event called New Wine, which is a large Christian event. I used to be the team leader of Pebbles, which is the 2-4 year olds. Which is really the biggest con ever. I used to lead the team, mostly of young people who worked with the children on the ground. I used to get up and walk around with a puppet parrot and basically just be stupid on a stage without ever working with the kids really.

But we would pray for this event all year, that God would move. I am sure its the same with everyone.

But. But. There was a time where I wasn’t on a team.

One year I came as a punter. I remember it well. Because there was a girl who I liked who needed a lift. And been the hero I wanted to be, I offered her a lift. Wow, two hours in the car with this girl, maybe more if I drive really slowly. Then she asks me if her younger friend could have a lift too. I’m like oh no. So I say I’m not sure if there will be space. She says we can find someone else. I suddenly remember I don’t have a convertible and I’m like there is so much space.

We are at a wedding the day of the New Wine, and as we are about to leave there all these well dressed guys chatting to her and I’m like we really need to go. It was one of those days that was so hot. We are driving with this girl I like and her friend in the back and its a lovely day. But if you know anything about driving to Somerset from Winchester its that the only road that is worthy of cars is the A303 and then its single lane most of the way. Which means if any car breaks down you are stuffed. We are driving its super hot and then we hit traffic. I mean traffic. Like 3 hours of tail backs.

The thing about Christians is that there are those Christians who have caravans that broke 10 years ago but miraculously through prayer they have managed to get this caravan to New Wine, even though it is dead. We are driving through the traffic, stuffy and hot and we get to the source of the traffic. Sure enough its a Christian caravan, and lo and behold they are still there laying on hands praying for this caravan. We keep going and somehow, agitated and hot the girl I like and myself get into some sort of debate and arguement. I’m distratced I drive through a red light, the girl starts shouting at me, her friend is crying and it is going pear shaped. I want the ground to swallow me up.

We get to New Wine and you knows the hot days which basically mean a thunderstorm is on its way. Just as I start setting up my tent, it starts raining. Desperatly i pitch up my tent and realise my gas stove has run out of gas. I head on down to the food court and get some food and some of those 70p doughuts. Get back to my tent and I kid you not. It was as if the flood was being renacted. There is a pool of water in my tent and Noahs Arc. Just Instead of Noahs arc, my deodorant can is spinning on top of the water.

I get to the big tent to finally hit the meeting. The worship band start and you can tell they have been praying and waiting for this moment the whole year. They are buzzing and they are encouraging everyone to shout out to God and I’m there, wet through and utterly despondent.

I wonder whether that is how you have arrived metaphorically to this week? Perhaps you;ve come buzzing. Perhaps this year has been the hardest of your life? The question I have is where are you at? The message that Jesus wants to share is that whevever you are at, he is filled with compassion and wants to stretch out towards you. There are loads of people in the bible who meet Jesus. Some are on the peripherary, some are wanting to kill him. Where are you?