popular

In Mark 3:20 Jesus’ notoriety reaches such a fever pitch that he and his disciples cannot go into a house and have a meal because they draw such a crowd. In our day that’s considered a sign of success. Imagine: without even sending out a tweet Jesus is able to draw a huge crowd just by his presence. Jesus has gone viral!

The result is that Jesus’ family thinks he’s crazy and the religious leaders think he is demon-possessed. Today Jesus would be considered a publicist’s dream come true. Who cares about the actual content of Jesus’ teaching? What’s important is that he is a celebrity. And that means a lot of money could be made if Jesus’ teaching (whatever it is) could be packaged and marketed properly.

So who has the better grasp on the importance of popularity?