“Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed Him. Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them.” – Matthew 4:25; 5:1-2

The book of John chapter 6 has the famous story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men (excluding women and children).

Verse 14 says; “Then those men, when they had seen the [miracle] that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’”

The next verse says; “Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.“

You wouldn’t struggle too much to imagine how the average ‘man of God’ would respond today, would you?

I mean we always try to outdo each other to advertise the minutest of miracles to the whole world in a desperate search for validation – so people can know how ‘powerful’ we are.

Yet, our meditation today indicates that when the crowds came out to follow Jesus, He instead withdrew to the hills where His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them.

American pastor Max Lucado famously wrote; “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd”!

That is exactly what our Lord Jesus did in John 2:23-25 – He literally turned His back on the crowds.

It says; “Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in Him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because He knew all about people. No one needed to tell Him about human nature, for He knew what was in each person’s heart.”

Despite the immense pressure in our contemporary world to the contrary, God still calls on His servants to put their trust in Him alone rather than in the fleeting applause of the cheering crowds.

He didn’t need anyone to tell Him about the motivations of people because He already knew!

Instead of depending on the validation of and seeking public respect because of the size of the crowd behind Him, Jesus chose to focus on mentoring His “little flock” of 12 disciples.

He didn’t want His ministry to be validated solely by ‘numbers’ but by the impact He would make on individual hearts.

Of course, this wouldn’t make any sense in a generation where the amount of the anointing’ on a man of God is judged by the size of the crowd that they can stand before on a Sunday morning.

Instead, Jesus focused on mentoring individuals who would stand firm in their faith, especially when faced with opposition or pressure from the crowd – to the extent of being firm enough to lay down their own lives for the sake of God’s kingdom.

Our Lord Jesus knew all too well that the crowds’ opinions and actions can be fickle.

They could be enthusiastic praise-singers at one moment and turn against Him the next day, as seen in the events leading to His crucifixion.

Today, there are crowds that may want to force the man of God to be a ‘king’; however, true leadership requires swimming against the tide of populism and instead focusing on winning God’s favour alone.

Indeed, history is awash with individuals who used charismatic leadership, sadly even God’s anointing, to pursue their own personal interests and agendas.

Many still employ worldly techniques such as crowd psychology, dependency and fear-mongering to gather crowds around them so as to shape public opinion in their favour while hiding their true intention – to wield power, control the narrative and garner material possessions.

Our Lord Jesus gave us the perfect example by declining to trust in ‘crowd power.’

Despite the immense pressure in our contemporary world to the contrary, God still calls on His servants to put their trust in Him alone rather than in the fleeting applause of the cheering crowds.