Ready for the show

This week's verses are John 4:43-45:

After the two days he departed from there to Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the feast (for they themselves had gone to the feast).

 When I read these verses, I was reminded of the downward trend of church attendance, at least where I am, after the months of COVID confinement. What could those two things possibly have to do with each other? Let's find out!

Jesus had performed a lot of miracles in Jerusalem. Word got out about the supernatural things that happened. So when he got to Galilee, he was already a bit of a celebrity. People were dying to see "the guy who does the stuff!"

The thing is, a lot of those people were just there for the show. They wanted to be entertained by the miracles Jesus was doing, kind of like going to a magic show or a circus. Maybe they needed healing and deliverance themselves, but the root of the thing was they were mostly there to be entertained by Jesus, not necessarily to follow him.

During confinement, a lot of people streamed church services because they couldn't go to their local church. They found the music was a little better. They found the sermon was a bit more polished. And they found that they could do other things, or even watch the stream later when they had a bit of spare time and have their Sundays for themselves to watch a movie or whatever. They could shop around three or four church services in a day and find the very best.

So when the time came that they were able to go back to their local church, they just stayed home. They had what they needed on YouTube. All they ever wanted was some good music, a good message to make them think, and the rest of their day to themselves. They didn't want to actually live community together. They didn't want to be inconvenienced.

These verses are a nice short excuse to take a step back and ask ourselves, why do I like Jesus? And why do I go to church? Do we love Jesus because he's the guy who did (and does) the stuff? Do we love him because he loves us? Or do we love him because he is God? (There can be multiple answers.) And what about church? Is it a concert? A networking event? A classroom? A family gathering? (Multiple answers here too.)

Jesus performed a lot of miracles in Galilee (and elsewhere) but not a lot of people followed him. He complained about it a few times. People were face to face with God himself, and they were just eating popcorn and talking on their cell phones. Reality itself was changing around them in the biggest event in history and they reacted to him like he was just another YouTuber. "Hey did you see the one where he made that paralyzed guy walk again?" "Yeah let's go watch it again! I hear he's in Capernaum on Tuesday."

Where is your heart in your Christian walk? Does it recognize God as God or is it just chasing a show? When you encounter other Christians, do you feel a camaraderie that comes from having this experience in common, in knowing this shared secret that Jesus is alive? Or is it just the place you go on Sunday to hear a nice talk and sing some songs?

The mind blowing thing is that only you and God can tell the difference. If you were to show up to one of Jesus' appearances in Galilee, could you tell how many people there were there for him and how many people were there for the show? Even if you saw how they lived, you still couldn't tell. Maybe they were just good at faking it. Maybe they were just really bad at doing what they wanted to do and believed was right. You can't tell a man's heart by looking at him, but you can tell what is in your own.

If you're doing the right things for all the wrong reasons, this is your moment to change. Recommit yourself to following Jesus for being God, and to living a life in common with others who have made that decision. The world is full of entertainment, but there is only one God and one Church.