CROWD-PLEASING PEOPLE
1 Chronicles 8:40b They had many sons and grandsons, 150 in all. All these were the descendants of Benjamin.
Matthew 15:37a-38 They all ate and were satisfied. The number of those who ate was four thousand.
The Crowd.
The Crowd is a particular ‘demographic’ found repetitively in the Old and New Testament. The Crowd has certain identifiable earmarks which separate themselves from the other anthropological choices. The Crowd, biblically speaking, is not the same as some of the crowds we can find in contemporary America, such as the crowds of people that can be found in the city streets of New York or at an airport in Rome. But those crowds aren’t there to gather. Those are moving crowds, unintentionally found in the same geographical location with an agenda to be found quickly in yet another geographical location. What makes an Old Testament Crowd or New Testament Crowd stand out from the other crowds of Crowds?
Gathered people have a common purpose which typically comes with the expectation that life will be improved somehow. The Crowd gathers to listen or learn, but what we do know is that the one with the microphone has a platform to influence that crowd.
One of social media’s buzz words today is “Influencer.” Where does The Crowd gather in this unprecedented era of technology? Well, on the internet, of course. Social Media is the new term for The Crowd, the contemporary water cooler, the office watering hole where people gather to get caught up on the latest and greatest. No one likes to get caught with their pants down, unaware and left behind on that social scale of acceptance. But just who is influencing the Crowd and with what is the Crowd being influenced? Well, therein lies the rub.
Like a political rally, collections of gathered people is nothing new. People often collected to listen to Jesus. How often Jesus began a discourse with a stern, grammatically Greek command, “To the one who has ears, listen!” Jesus, the original Influencer, actually didn’t have much to influence with; “The greatest will become the least.” That message simply will not sell; not today, anyway. Everybody’s gotta be great.
Eyelashes have to be so thick that the sands of the Sahara couldn’t penetrate them. People are driving hours away to sit in the coveted chair of the most recommended hair-extension specialist in the region. The oxygen in our air is so contaminated with men’s cologne that the chemical compound for oxygen will soon read O-spice.
Value add, value add, value add. No one is valuable enough. And the media has been riding that “insufficient” wave for at least a century. Tweeters want to know how to increase, not decrease; how to be the fairest in all the land and what to do to get the most ‘likes.’ What in the world would Jesus do about the ‘likes?’ Being liked and being popular was not part of Jesus’ language, platform or agenda, which is glaringly obvious with the many people who wanted to kill Him.
Why was Jesus being threatened? Jealousy. The religious leaders, who were the media-moguls of their day, were full of envy because The Crowd was starting to switch sides, changing Influencers, following in another direction.
The few who really understood what kind of life Jesus was really offering continued to accept the invitation, even after Jesus was murdered, and risked their own lives in the meantime. (Acts 5:17-20)
The high priests, members of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy and arrested the apostles and put them in jail. The Lord opened the jail. And released them, “Go, stand in the temple courts and to the people, the words of this life.”
This life. The Crowd asked, “What is in this life for me?” Have the social media crowds been asking anything different? Aren’t the influencers today feeding the desires of the self-serving crowds, something that is going to improve ‘this life?’
Jealousy is still the driving force, to want something that someone else has or to be something that someone else already is. Vainglory, coveting, envy, jealousy are sins of carnality, fleshly desires just waiting to be produced. That’s where the Influencer comes in. Satan has been The Influencer for the world since Day One, “Life could be better, Eve. Wouldn’t you like your life to be better? Sure, you would.”
Today’s believers have some difficult choices to make. Which Influencers will the believer listen to? Can a believer follow an Influencer of the world and Jesus at the same time? In this day and age of freedom, what kind of abuse and persecution is there for someone who chooses the side of Jesus? Some might consider a make-up free, plain-face a form of abuse, not being pretty or attractive, not having ten perfect nails. How about aging? Is that persecution, not being young anymore?
Social Media Influencers thrive on sexuality and physical beauty because sensuality sells. Pride and ego rule the world, and the devil rules pride and ego. The self-image of young girls, even young men and women, are influenced by whatever Social Media tells them. Older women are influenced as well, listening to the false voices that tell them that aging is a bad thing, and our women of faith believe it. Why is it more difficult to believe what God says about aging?
Job 12:12 Is not wisdom found among the aged?
Proverbs 16:31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.
There is so much that could be said about the age of the Influencer and the ones being influenced. The Crowd has always been and still is looking for self-satisfaction and life improvement.
Scripture tells us that Jesus came with a radical, opposing message, definitely not a crowd-pleaser: in Matthew 16:24 Jesus said to His disciples (not the crowd), “If anyone would come after me, he is renounced, his cross is raised, and imitate Me.” Many had been walking with Jesus at that time, but it didn’t take long until this Influencer was no longer influencing the many, and they stopped walking with Jesus. No surprise there. Choosing to imitate Jesus and His sacrificial cross comes with abuse, the abuse of renouncing the self in spite of the “thumbs down” naysayers, the abuse of no longer being popular, pretty or the life of the party.
Training as a disciple for three years is the difficult gymnasium to build flesh-ripping Humility muscles of the Spirit and agonize through the learning curve of that narrow gate. I’ve learned to walk away from worldly social Influencers. They have no hold on me. I only walk with the True Influencer. All other influencers are sinking sand.
