Crowd To Church - Part 1

Introduction

I was recently struck by two words in the New Testament; crowd and church or congregation. In the original Greek these words are οχλος (ochlos) and εκκλησια (ekklesia). As I considered these two words I began to wonder where, or when, the crowd became a church. This is important for us today as we seek to continue building God’s kingdom as local churches. 

In this study we will consider both οχλος and εκκλησια, we will look at examples of both across the New Testament to see what their defining characteristics are. In doing this will hopefully learn how we can make sure we are part of the Church and not just a crowd, and also how we can help others make that same transition.

If we do a quick word survey we see that οχλος occurs 175 times across 170 verses, with 149 instances in the Gospels. On the other hand εκκλησια occurs 114 times in 111 verses with only 3 occurrences in the Gospels, all in Matthew. We are not going to look at all these references in this study, I do, however, encourage you to read through them, and reflect on them in light of what we study together.

Together we shall look at some of these references as we look to address questions like:

• What do these crowds look like?

• What is their response to Jesus?

• What seems to be their motivation for following and flocking to Jesus?

• When do we first see something we might recognise as a church?

• What are the key characteristics?

• How does this line up with the idea of one people set apart by God for God?

• Why is the Church important?

In looking at these words and considering these questions I hope that we can learn together what really defines a church, and what it means to belong to a church and not just be part of the crowd.

Crowd - οχλος (ochlos)

There are many occasions that the gospel writers tell us there was a crowd, it may be at the death of someone, Matthew 9: 23, or it may be when they are demanding Pilate releases Barabas, Mark 15: 8. The most common use is to describe the scene where Jesus is teaching and healing people. It is interesting that this word is never used to describe those with the Pharisees, nor is it used in reference to those the religious leaders might be teaching. Though the Pharisees are often in the crowd.

This tells us that what Jesus had to say was open for all, there were no barriers to entry, no minimum education requirement, no checks on your adherence to the law, and no need to have your life perfectly sorted out. Jesus taught and healed the crowd. As we reflect on that we must surely conclude that our churches must be similarly open, a point we will see when we look at εκκλησια (ekklesia, church).

Let’s now dive into looking at some of the times the gospel writers use the word crowd, starting with Mark.

At the start of Mark we read of Jesus being baptized, and tempted. We see that He has taught in the synagogue, has cast out a demon, and has healed Simon’s mother-in-law. The response of the people, Mark 1: 23-34, is to gather where Jesus is, and He heals many. This is the first time in Mark that we get the sense of a crowd gathering around Jesus. 

Reading on we see that Jesus values time with the Father, verse 35. From here we see Jesus heal a leper in 1: 40-45 who then goes around telling everyone about Jesus.

Now in Capernaum we get Mark’s first use of οχλος (ochlos; crowd) to describe the people who had come to Jesus.

“Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd [οχλος] …”

Mark 2: 4a

Mark records that Jesus was in Capernaum, and once again so many had gathered that there was no room left (Mark 2: 1-4).

What is interesting for us in this study is Jesus’ response to the crowd. Jesus begins to speak the word to them, He is teaching them. When we read the “word” in this context we know that Jesus is teaching the message from God, something that becomes clear in verses 5-11. This is unusual. Jesus’ teaching and ministry did not take place in private, it was available to all who would seek Him out. This is not something we see in reference to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as we read the Gospels.

Let’s consider this crowd a little more, who is in the crowd?

Well we know the sick are there, even those so sick they are on the outskirts of society, such as the paralysed man. The fact he is brought by his friends indicates the healthy are there too. Mark also tells us that the scribes, or teachers of the law were there. This is a mixed crowd, with mixed motives, but a shared goal - they all want to hear Jesus. Jesus then addresses the paralysed man first, I think this shows that Jesus is full of love and compassion. He is not moved by status, or human senses of importance; He is moved by love and compassion.

Further, when we consider where Capernaum is we can perhaps get more insight into who may have been in the crowd. Capernuam was on the northern shore of Lake Galilee. This location places it on the border of two realms. In the west, and where Capernaum mostly/entirely lies is the Jewish tetrarchy of Herod Antipas. To the east is the Gentile tetrarchy of Herod Philip. It was a fishing town or village with an estimated population of 1000 - 1500, this was made up of both Jews and gentiles (ref https://rsc.byu.edu/ministry-peter-chief-apostle/simon-peter-capernaum-archaeological-survey-first-century-village). For our purposes this hints at the possibility that the crowd was made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus is drawing all people to Him, and teaching them all as equal.

Reading on in Mark we quickly get another use of “crowd” in Mark 2: 13.

“Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.”

Mark 2: 13

I actually think that the ESV or the RSV translate this verse better, in those versions it is clear that the crowd from the house have followed Jesus to the lake. Jesus once again begins to teach them, opening the Kingdom of Heaven for all, publicly teaching all who will come to Him.

Importantly for us,  and this study, it also teaches us something about the crowd that we can apply today. 

At this point this is just a crowd, it is not a community, but they are following Jesus. This is something we see throughout the Gospels. The crowd pursues Jesus, the crowd follows Him, but they are doing so for their own ends as we shall see. 

Continuing in Mark’s Gospel we see in chapter 3 that the crowd, also referred to as a great multitude, includes those who have travelled to see Jesus.

“Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd [πληθος, plethos, multitude] from Galilee followed. When they heard all he was doing, many people [plethos once again] came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.”

Mark 3: 7-8

Interestingly this is the only time Mark uses the word πληθος (plethos) instead of οχλος (ochlos) for a crowd, even in this account he switches back in verse 9. In fact the only other Gospel uses of this word, plethos, are in Luke, and he uses it only 8 times compared to his 36 uses of ochlos.

In these verses Maak lists out where people have come from, they have travelled great distances. For example Tyre is approximately 55 km north of Capernaum. I once ran that distance and it took over 6 hours. So we can see that some of these people have made great sacrifices, they are very committed to seeing Jesus. What a challenge that is for us. We don’t have to travel at all to spend time with Jesus, and I suspect many of us don’t travel  that far to go to church, but would we be willing to?

In Matthew we also get a sense of the crowd being made up of people from a wide area.

“News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him”

Matthew 4: 24-25

Once again we have a crowd made up of people from different areas, once again they are drawn to Jesus for what He can do, and once again Jesus meets their needs.

We see the crowd's motivation in John 6.

“After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”

John 6: 14-15

Then later in this chapter,

“Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”

John 6: 26

It seems clear to me that the motivation of the crowd is somewhat self seeking. It also seems clear that this is not what Jesus is looking for.

While our focus here is on the crowd and what we can learn from them, I do want to draw our attention to Jesus. He has compassion for the crowd. Yes, there are times when He escapes the crowd, when He retreats either alone or with His disciples, but there is never a sense of frustration or annoyance. His response is one of compassion.

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

Matthew 14: 14

Even in John 6 when Jesus calls out their motives we see Jesus teaching the crowd and speaking of welcoming those who come to Him, and not pushing them away. (John 6: 37)

Conclusion

So, from this brief word survey what have we learnt about the crowd? 

The crowd is diverse, it is persistent, but it is somewhat self seeking or motivated by its own interests. We see that often this is a spontaneous, organic gathering, it is not an organised group. What we read in John 6 is Jesus calling them out for this, for pursuing their own ends and for seeking only the superficial. Jesus is offering so much more, He is offering a true, real, and meaningful relationship with Him.

Yes, the crowd pursues Jesus, and perhaps we need to get some of that hunger, or desire but the motives are wrong.