That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’
Mark 4:35 NIVUK
Popularity is currency nowadays. The culture of fame has been taken to ridiculous lengths.
The famous modernist painter Andy Warhol once wrote that ‘In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes’.
He’s not far wrong, is he?
Reality TV and social media have democratised fame. Now people can become famous, or infamous, who have little discernible talent other than their looks, and some don't even have that. We have reached the stage where even children are being paid to sell things to their peers on social media. Our society has become vacuous and empty.
David Bowie, a talented British singer who experienced both fame and infamy in equal measure, wrote in one of his songs that ‘Fame... puts you there were things are hollow... what you get is no tomorrow...what you need you have to borrow... ‘
The theme song from the musical Fame contains these words:
‘Remember my name (fame)
I'm gonna live forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly (high)
I feel it comin' together
People will see me and cry (fame)
I'm gonna make it to heaven
Light up the sky like a flame (fame)
Oh, I'm gonna live forever
Baby, remember my name’
However, allow me to provide you with a very interesting counterpoint.
A journalist for the UK newspaper The Guardian – Hadley Freeman – made a career for herself out of interviewing famous people (and I mean really famous people – Hollywood famous). This is what she said about them:
‘The most common question I get from readers is what the celebrities I’ve interviewed are like. That’s easy: they’re weird. All celebrities are a bit weird, because wanting to be famous is a weird thing and living your life as the object instead of a subject is a genuinely maddening way to exist.’
So if fame is something that makes you weird and is a ‘genuinely maddening way to live’, where, in her article, she goes on to explain that famous people basically give up any dreadful secret about their life just to get attention, why on earth would anyone actually want to do it?
The reason is simple: to feel significant. To feel important. To feel special. Which, if you think of it, is actually really pathetic and sad.
Which brings us to this very surprising verse.
You see, Jesus’ ministry was going very well. He was attracting huge crowds – so much that Jesus had to go into a boat to teach for His, and their, safety (Mark 4:1). This story is also recorded in Matthew and Luke, where we see that people were following Him from town to town (Luke 8:4), and Jesus had to discourage people from following Him (Matthew 8:18-22).
So if we were Jesus’ agent, what would we tell Him to do? Start charging for tickets? Sell t-shirts? Provide extra access for a fee?
We would probably try to capitalise on the fame.
Not Jesus.
He proposes to cross to the other side of the Lake.
And this is where things get really interesting.
Because where they ended up was a desolate place, where people kept pigs. This tells us one crucial fact:
These people were not Jews.
Jews did not associate with non-Jews, and definitely not with those who kept pigs.
So what was Jesus doing here?
Apart from heading to a divine appointment with a demoniac who needed healed, Jesus is also managing His fame and popularity. Having spent an extended time in the spotlight, Jesus is now heading off the stage.
And there is a very good reason for this. You see then, as now, there was a battle for glory. In Jesus’ day it was between Caesar and, well, everyone else. So if Jesus began to attract fame and popularity to the extent where people would become more loyal to Him than to Caesar (which would not be hard to imagine, given how both treated people), then Jesus would become a threat. If Jesus became a threat to Caesar, that would also make Him a threat to the Jewish authorities, who depended on Caesar’s patronage to keep them in power.
Now I know what you’re thinking. ‘Didn’t Jesus come to be crucified at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities? What does it matter if it happens early?’
However, Jesus came to be crucified at a specific time:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:6 NIVUK
So although He came to teach and heal and restore, Jesus needed to manage His fame and popularity to ensure that it didn’t get too great at the wrong time.
He also had to be very careful that it didn’t show itself in the wrong way. John records this incident after the Feeding of the Five Thousand:
Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
John 6:15 NIVUK
Jesus had no intention at all of leading a rebellion or an uprising against the Romans. But His popularity and fame could lead to exactly that.
Given the desolate place where Jesus ended up, I have no doubt at all that Jesus was managing His popularity and fame – having tried to dissuade people following Him who were simply looking for the next big thing, He now leaves from the place where His fame is the greatest to let things calm down. The passage from John shows us that this is something He did more than once.
What does this tell us about the nature of fame and popularity?
Firstly, that they can be dangerous. They can put us in a place where we are required to compromise our core beliefs in order to maintain our fame and popularity. I think, for example, of the pressure K-Pop bands like BlackPink have recently come under to make statements supporting LGBT people, when to do so would compromise the more conservative views of their core audience in South Korea.
Fame and popularity don’t come on our terms. They come because other people deem us worthy of their adulation. That adulation can be conditional on us agreeing with them.
When we refuse to do so, fame and popularity can be taken from us as quickly as they arrived.
Secondly, I believe fame and popularity should never be sought. We should never set out to be famous – whatever the cause.
Jesus did not set out to be famous. He did not pull stunts or make a huge scene purely to become famous. In fact, one of the temptations He faced in the desert (jumping off the highest point of the Temple – Matthew 4:5-7; Luke 4:9-12), would doubtless have achieved exactly that. And Jesus refused it.
Seeking to be famous is a fool’s game. We will only end up compromising everything we hold dear to get it, and then lose it all when our fame disappears. Never chase fame or popularity – let them find you.
Lastly, do not hold tightly to them if they come. Human adulation is fickle. The same crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem yelled for Him to be crucified a few days later – that’s just human nature. That's how we are.
Stick to the purpose God gave you like glue. If it makes you famous and popular, so be it.
If not, even better.
Questions
1. Why are people who seek fame and popularity so strange?
2. Why were fame and popularity dangerous for Jesus?
3. How can you ensure that you stick to the purpose God gave you like glue?
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