Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, Matthew 5:1

Here’s the scene: a crowd of people is waiting to hear the most profound speaker of all time impart wisdom and spiritual counsel. No one else in all the world would ever be able to match his wisdom. Then he walked up the side of the mountain for the best vantage point, to where he wanted to speak. The disciples surround him and he began to teach.

In your mind’s eye, you can see the people leaning in and straining to hear him, hanging on his every word, hoping they heard every word. He has their undivided attention. Nothing else in the world matters than those moments he is teaching them. They want nothing else than to hear the Master.

Fast forward two thousand years and you get a very different picture. Those of us who know the Master find it difficult to “find the time” to listen to Him. We don’t strain to hear; we don’t soak in His teachings. Not all of us, of course, but many.

What did his early followers know that we don’t?