The Maestro in the Crowd

The Sunday Mail ran an interesting article on page 3 on the weekend. It was called, “Maestro in the Crowd” and told of a “social experiment” that the Sunday Mail set up last week. What they did was, get Warwick Adeney, arguably Queensland’s best violinist, to busk in Brisbane’s CBD. He would play 50 concerts a year to very discerning audiences and you would normally pay between $50 to $70 to get to hear him play.

During the 35 minutes he played, only 11 people paused to listen and he only made just over $15. People just did not notice the “maestro in the crowd”. While this was a social experiment to highlight that we are often too busy to stop and notice something special in our midst, I think that the application goes even deeper for all of us. It highlights to me, that we often don’t see “the maestro” in others; that something special in everyone.

The Bible teaches us that every person has “the image of God” in them, and that this special characteristic in all of us is the basis for our human worth, dignity and value. All people, regardless of how good they are, or how bad they are, are worthy of the kind of respect that simply comes from being human, a possessor of the “Imago Dei”.

Jesus took this idea even further when he talked about those who are poor and excluded in our communities. In Matthew 25:31-46, he tells a parable about Judgement Day, where the King separates the people of the nations like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep are the “righteous” who get to go with the King forever, and the goats are the “unrighteous” who are to be separated from the King forever. The basis of this separation is what the sheep and goats either did or did not do for the “very least” in the community (EG – feed the hungry, visit the sick, accommodate the homeless etc etc). He says, “Whenever you did / did not do these things to the very least of these brothers of mine, you did / did not do them to me.” Jesus goes as far as to say, that helping “the least” is the same as helping him. The presence of Jesus there in their lives.

Stop and look around. Take time to see into the crowd. There are “maestros” in our midst.

Shalom...