It has always been the case that when God calls a people out of the world to be holy, set apart, they eventually despise the Lord's ways and look with envy on the world. Having been saved out of slavery the people who had gladly followed Moses soon complained, "We were better off in Egypt!" (Num.11:18) Having entered the land, and with God as their king, they said to Samuel, "Now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (1 Sam.8:5) Now their Lord and their King was among them he was not, it seemed to them, the right sort of king.

Jesus knew what the crowds were thinking and how they viewed him and events. They had a picture from the Old Testament of the day of God's judgement, of a king who would come with vengeance and retribution, saving by his mighty works of conquest (Is.35:4) Even John the Baptist sent disciples to inquire of Jesus, "Are you the one who was to come?" Jesus replied from that same Isaiah passage:

"Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Mt.11:4, c.f. Is.35:4-6)

Telling the crowds, "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me", Jesus makes it clear that prophecy was indeed being fulfilled in their lifetime, before their eyes. They were not happy with John the Baptist, finding him a little too austere and serious about his religion. This same John, Jesus said, was the Elijah who was to come as a forerunner for the Messiah. On the other hand, neither were they comfortable with Jesus because, by contrast, he was altogether too much like them, living a normal life, mixing with ordinary people. Yet here was their king walking among them - a servant king.

In our day we can see the same happening whenever we follow the world's methods and model for success. As God calls us to a life of humility and service we can be impatient with that model, see success in numbers, treat evangelism as recruitment, regard people as prospective church members. We can fail to follow the example of Jesus whose ministry was based, not on getting people to come to him but on coming to people where they are and ministering to their needs. While we are in the gospel age, while it is today, we should set aside our preconceptions of "how things ought to be" and, following the example of our king, minister to people, sharing the good news.

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