Mark 3:7-20 KJV
7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea,
8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.
9 And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.
10 For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.
11 And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.
12 And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.
13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.
14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,
15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:
16 And Simon he surnamed Peter;
17 And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:
18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite,
19 And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house.
20 And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

What is the largest crowd you ever been in? Did the crowd bother you, or do you like large gatherings. In the area in which I live the largest crowds are probably on the day of our town festivals or the little carnival. In truth this is not so large that you think you might be squished to death. Even Walmart on black Friday is crowded but not has crowded as the crowded that pressed in around Jesus. For those in larger areas, a big gathering of people take some type of arena, shopping center or park. Being in a huge crowd can be exhilarating depending on the purpose for the crowd. However Israel land mass is about 290 miles by 85 miles, not counting distance on mountain ranges going uphill and so forth. You can look the information up online or pull out your Bible maps in your Bible, you have at home. Use a ruler with mile distance on the map. You will get the same approximate reading as history information online. You walk fifty miles a day or at least 25 it take you about a week or two to get across Israel depending on if you have to catch your dinner, or not. We got to remember this time period is primitive to our own culture but there would of been inns, restauraunts of some sort and so forth. The need on feast day for meat to feed the crowd would have taken the meat sacrificed to feed the crowds. Farmers would of taken a beating with their growing crops perhaps, but never hear of one in scripture being flatten because of the crowd, only the disciples picking corn or grain in which to eat.

When Scriptures talks of surround areas outside of Israel people came from a great distance because what they had heard about Jesus and the miracles that he did. The demons were cast out and they would tell who Jesus was as being the Son of God and Jesus would command them to tell no one. The spreading of who Jesus was came by those traveling across Israel, who had witness the miracles and people would come from miles around Israel. Even across the water.

Why do I keep stressing this point. The image in Sunday School class or even the pulpit never mentions how large these crowds that flocked and pressed around Jesus. Jesus because of humanity need to eat and the crowd just kept coming. He appointed his disciples to do the healing to help in the work. Most of us can invision the crowd by a large church or concert gathering, but to see the work of Jesus in his day, we have only gotten a glimpse through revival and repentance of sin. There was spiritual, mental, and physical healing going on. The purpose of putting emphases on this during this month is to help in the imagery seldom seen when talking about miracles of Jesus. There may not be a spiritual point to this lesson, but it is done to present something about the journey of Jesus, we can not grasp without knowledge of just reading. Something was happening In Israel not seen before. Something was shaking the area and upsetting the priesthood. No doubt the crowds even came ot the Temple looking for Jesus.

The former pope died this month, there was a video shot of him blessing the crowd and shaking hands and a person literally tried to pull him into the crowd. The crowd was barracaded by a rope or wall, can't remember. If you can imagine this image here, if you seen it, it was worse at the time of Jesus. If you can image this time period, you also can see when Zaccheus climbed the tree to see Jesus because of the crowd around him. Miracles were happening, nothing like the time of Jesus and the miracles he performed has been seen since.

Dear Heavenly Father, the images you paint of your Son in scripture does not leave out the crowd of people that pressed in around him. The magnitude of his on going ministry while on earth and even today in the world of faith. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Luke 19:1-5 KJV
1 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
4 And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.
5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.