<p>9:11 <i>But the crowds knew it, and they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and those that had need of healing he cured</i>- Possibly implying that some posed as being sick, and yet the Lord could discern whose need was genuine. How hard His life must have been, in that hard land. And how hard it <i>is</i> for Him, in this hard world.</p><p>To not offend others we must &ldquo;receive&rdquo; them (Mt. 18:5). It is written of Jesus that when crowds of materialistic, fascinated people followed Him, &ldquo;He received them, and spake unto them of the Kingdom&rdquo; (Lk. 9:11). He didn&rsquo;t just turn round and read them a lecture about the Kingdom. &ldquo;He <i>received </i>them&rdquo;. Presumably Luke means to reflect how he perceived something in the Lord&rsquo;s body language that was receiving of that crowd of peasants- whom we would likely have written off as just dumb groupies with no more than surface level interest. And we too must receive one another, even as the Lord has received us (Rom. 15:7)- and this includes receiving him who is even weak in the faith (Rom. 14:1). We should be looking for every reason to receive and fellowship our brethren, rather than reasons not to.</p><p>Mt. 13:54-58 records how the Lord taught in the synagogue but didn&rsquo;t get a good response, nor did He do many miracles there because of their unbelief. But now He leaves, and the people flock after Him. This may be understandable just in terms of basic psychology- when a wonderful offer is not taken up but appears to be receding, people then desperately grab onto it. Perhaps that&rsquo;s why the Lord seems well disposed to these people- healing and feeding them. But we also get the impression that the Lord was not constantly available for teaching and healing. I have previously remarked that the intensity of some of the days which the Gospels record was surely not repeated every day of His ministry. It seems He spent most of His time training the twelve and only occasionally made public appearances to teach and heal.</p>