How the Kingdom Begins - Social Necessities

MOVEMENT IMPERATIVES

The first generation of any movement is unusual.   No other time in the movement's history will there be such expectation, such hope, and such promise.  No other time in its life as a group will it have such excitement, vision, and promised answers to any number of problems.

The beginnings of a movement also includes a certain pride, possibly even arrogance, that suggests that the movement is superior to all other movements and because the movement is superior, the people in that movement have a special place in history, because they are a part of something incredibly important.

For a new movement to begin, there are several factors that must happen. 
1.  People who are not yet followers of the movement have to be very dissatisfied with the life and the solutions they are given. 
2.  The new movement must promise to give a great deal more of what people want.

So if people are unhappy with the government, they may be open for a better one;  and if people are unhappy with their church or religion they may be open for a new one.  Even so, people don't trust or like too much change, so the dissatisfaction of the old must be very strong, and the promises of the new must be very powerful and idealistic.

Sometimes change may be drastic, such as a Western Catholic becoming a Hare Krishna, or a Capitalist becoming Communist - but these are not common.  More commonly,  people make smaller changes such as, a Catholic becoming Protestant, or a Republican becoming a Democrat.

THE FIRST CENTURY SETTING

In Jesus day people were tired of poverty, losing houses and land, and scrounging for food.  People were also tired of a religion that served the religious elite at the cost of the poor who were the vast majority (90%), through tithes and offerings.

People were also looking for dignity and pride they weren't getting from the political and religious leaders of their day.   People need a sense of pride in who they are and what they do.   Instead, religious and political leaders became arrogant and took dignity from the masses while looking down on them as is clearly seen by the words of the Pharisees in John 7:49:


This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God's curse is on them!"

Although people were ripe for change, most did not want to leave their roots in Judaism.  People weren't ready to leave their identity as it related to the stories of the past - Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah and Isaiah, but they were ripe for messiahs and self-proclaimed prophets who promised freedom from the political and religious elite through the hand of God.

The prophets and promised messiahs provided direction for those who joined them.  The stories and speeches that could be used to find followers were easy to get.  They were everywhere.  People grew up on the stories of God's work in the past - stories that told of great feats of the past - times when God took people out of bondage and into freedom.  Those stories gave followers identity and direction.   The stories were easy to find, however, people need more than words to propel them into following and into action.  They need leaders who can use those same stories and words to bring people into their cause and propel them into action.

There were many such leaders in Jesus' day - messiahs and prophets who drew people into groups.  But most of those messiahs and groups died before they were able to get out of the First Century.  For some strange reason, the group called Christians who followed a messiah called Jesus, not only broke free from the First Century but endured until this day.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE JESUS' MOVEMENT

People began following Jesus for different reasons, most of which were probably self-centered.  While Jesus healed to show that he had power over sin, over the world of the clean vs. the unclean, or over nature, people simply saw that their personal needs were being met.  Jesus' healings and miracles said something about who he was, but people only saw his works as deeds that served national and personal interests.  John spells this out very clearly after Jesus fed the 5,000 when the people wanted to make Jesus a king, so he could feed them regularly like Moses fed the people in the wilderness.

In Mark 8, Peter came to realize that Jesus was the messiah.  But after being told by Jesus that he understood this because the Holy Spirit revealed it to him, Peter showed us all that his understanding was centered on the interests of himself and his nation and not on God's interests.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men (Mark 8:33)."

When Jesus knowingly or unknowingly began his movement, people were expecting to find in him, a leader who would solve their own problems and meet their own interests and needs.  According to Mark, even the closest disciples fell into the same ideological trap.

John tells us that several times, Jesus pared down his own following by what he said, in order to strip away many of those who were following for reasons of self survival, self interest, or national self interest.

CONCLUSIONS

Jesus gained a following from those who were unsettled in life, looking for something better, looking for better chances of survival.  Even though Jesus' miracles and healings were designed to say something about who he was, people followed him only because Jesus met their own needs and interests.  The disciples themselves were also guilty of this.

It took the cross to bring people closer to understanding the real Jesus.