The old baldheaded prophet headed for Bethel

 2 Kings 2:23 (NIV) From there Elisha went up to Bethel . As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!"

Elisha was headed for Bethel. Why Bethel? It was the center of prayer and religious practice in that region. The first altar there had been built by Abraham.

The youths who were jeering Elisha as he walked along the road knew who he was and that he was going up to Bethel for purposes of religious observance.

How many folks know that what we do is for purposes of religious observation yet they have not been touched by the reality of God? This is not a criticism of Elisha, merely a thought about the masses of humanity who watch us go by and view us with some distraction because they don't recognize anything about our religious nature as pertaining to them and their problems.

Christianity has historically emphasized being 'Christ-centered.' Indeed, a branch of theology is 'Christology.' However, if we are truly 'Christ-centered' our focus and priority will be reflecting that in which Christ was centered - people with problems.

That would be those alongside the road who encourage us to just 'go on by' and leave them alone. Why would someone with problems want religious people to leave them alone? Possibly because religious people tend to reflect the attitudes of those religious participants Jesus spoke of in His parable of the 'Good Samaritan.'

To paraphrase an old adage: 'people don't care who you profess to know until they know how much you care.'

If we will become as humble as a Samaritan in the middle of Jewish territory people might possibly allow us to tend to their broken lives and wounded hearts.

They might not wish for us to just go on by and leave them alone.