Mark 3:7-12
Jesus left with his disciples and went to the lake. A large crowd followed him because they had heard what he was doing. They were from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the area surrounding Tyre and Sidon. Jesus told his disciples to get a small boat ready for him so the crowd wouldn’t crush him. He had healed so many people that everyone who was sick pushed forward so that they could touch him. Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down at his feet and shouted, “You are God’s Son!” But he strictly ordered them not to reveal who he was.
Jesus has left the passive resistance of the scribes in the synagogues and moved to the lakeside. As his reputation grows, we read that people are coming from all over to experience the living Christ. The sick are coming. The lost are approaching. Even the scribes are watching from the fringes of the crowd.
These new followers came because they had heard. When they arrived they experienced. In the presence of Christ, light and wholeness were present. Restoration came immediately on his command. All of the dirt, baggage, ugliness and evil found no home with this congregation. In the presence of light and love, the darkness and indifference has no choice but to go away.
As we seek to grow closer to Christ, may we offer the things to others that God has offered us. Love, care and devotion among other things.
Elie Wiesel reminds us that “Action is the only remedy to indifference.” Ultimately, this action is love. He also writes that ‘by saving a single human being, man can save the world’.
So maybe you by yourself can’t rid the world of poverty, but you can help one person. You can help one cause. You can be the one to act when others are indifferent.
It was the sin of indifference that allowed the holocaust to happen.
It was the sin of indifference that allowed the poor man to lie starving at the door of the rich man.
It is the sin of indifference that keeps us from noticing and loving that one person who needs our help.
Remember, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
“Action is the only remedy to indifference.”
Pastor Michael Williams