Two’s company, three’s a crowd

We are obsessed with crowds. So much that we would do anything to bring in the crowds. Shops are inaugurated by celebrities to make people come, churches offer food and snacks to members who attend services, educational institutions offer fee discounts and perks to get more students and offers and discounts rule the day. All for the crowds to come.

A priest is measured in terms of the crowd he can get to church, teachers in government schools end up going to houses to canvas for children for their classes to maintain the minimum number nee
ded to keep the school afloat, and complimentary passes are given for programmes to ensure that a minimum number of people attend. Political parties also get people to attend their election rallies by offering food and a daily allowance. The crowd determines the success of a programme.

Are crowds so important? Is quantity more important than quality? Do thousands of Facebook friends translate to that many people responding if we have a crisis? For those who know, quality is better than quantity. St. Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” The idiom “Two’s company, three’s a crowd” refers to the fact that two people enjoy each other’s company and a third will ruin it. But in the context of Jesus’ words, we can interpret it as three itself being a crowd. A crowd of quality instead of quantity.

During covid, churches conducted services with no people inside the church. With just two or three, there was breaking of bread and transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. There was a redefining of the word crowd. And there was assurance from the words of Jesus that he would be there whenever two or three gathered in his name. There is a call for two or three, a church of quality rather than a church of quantity.

Lent is a time to re look the word crowd. We usually feel assured with a crowd to the extend that we will even feel emboldened to do whatever. But we need to question ourselves whether the crowd emboldens us instead of Christ Jesus himself. The crowd consists of people like us. We need not under estimate them. But we needn’t over estimate them as well. Christ is in the midst of the few and not necessarily the many. Let us try to be one of the two or three, looking to be transformed while representing the crowd of believers. Amen.