MOSH PIT

-CONNECT- The music is blaring. The lights are glowing firey red and blue. The strobe is on and people are surfing overhead. And then, the mosh pit begins. With every beat of the drum and the scratchy chords of the guitar, you are into the moment---feeling the music and loving the artists. You push and plow your way to the front, longing for a touch of the lead singer or a keepsake of the set list and guitar picks. These are the entertainers that you have come to love. Just behind the big, buff security guy stands the band. No matter what it takes, you are headed up there…and all the while people are being pushed and slammed against the gate, gasping for air and slowly suffocating beneath the madness of all the devoted fans. Everyone has one goal, get as close as possible.

-REFLECT- Read Mark Chapter 3
Key Verse: 7-12
Jesus is the main attraction in this passage. People are coming from EVERYWHERE just to see him.. He is the guy who can heal. He is the one who they have come to love and worship. They wanted to be close to him and follow him…and so they came. Jesus tells his disciples to get a boat ready because he needed some distance. These people were crazy! They would push through the crowd, surf over top, and mosh their way around, just to be caught up in a moment with him. These people didn’t care what it cost to get close, they were going. They were sick and needed to be touched by Jesus. They wanted to touch his clothes or get a drop of his sweat on them, like a crazed fan looking for any sort of connection with their musical idol. The difference for them was that they were pushing in to the Son of God---and they did it so that their lives would be changed.

-DIRECT- There are so many people and things in our lives that we just HAVE to be a part of. We want to get close to a particular group of people. We want to have just a piece of a certain club or clique. Many of us spend our whole lives (or at least a few of our school years) just pushing in whatever ways we can to connect with whatever it is we idolize. The problem is that it’s rare that the things we are fighting so hard to get to is Jesus. Somehow the people of Jesus’ day got it…they knew he was someone worth crowding in for. Do you get it? Maybe we need to consider why we don’t, ‘cuz Jesus has much more to offer us than a guitar pick and a sweat towel….he offers us a drop of his blood and the assurance of eternal life. Now that is worth surfing the crowd to get to.