When there is no compulsion and people are free how do they come to ‘engage’? Every teacher tries to arouse the interest of students and every preacher tries to attract the people listening. But what of results? Teachers today are fully aware of the drive to produce results but preachers never have to tick the boxes! Perhaps it would not be a bad thing if they did, though how you evaluate following the gospel and apportion responsibility for failure are tricky questions!
Jonah got good results. Nineveh was a city that popped up from nowhere; it was not even part of Israel. Yet when Jonah preached repentance the people listened and acted. This story is presented to us as a warm up to the gospel of Mark and his unvarnished picture of Jesus preaching: “The time has come. The kingdom of God is close at hand. Change your way of thinking and believe the good news!”
We know from the rest of Mark’s gospel that – although great crowds followed Jesus and showed initial enthusiasm – there was a distinct lack of commitment once the going got tough. Even his closest disciples were “in a daze.” It was only the poor – like the woman with a haemorrhage and poor blind Bartimaeus – who really understood.
John Henry Newman developed the distinction between ‘notional’ and ‘real’ assent. Many good people have accepted the message of the gospel and live their lives as best they can. But they do not pay much attention to its deeper meaning. A real assent to the message of Jesus and a real turning towards him, drawing us beyond our comfort levels, remains a call to us.
Paul gives us some challenging words to help; ‘those who have to deal with the world should not become engrossed in it.’ We do become engrossed and that is necessary if we are to succeed. But we are always people with one eye of the greater picture of God’s plan breaking in on the world.
– Ngomakurira
Post published in: Faith