Boxing Out for Jesus

In basketball, you box out other players so you can get the rebound. But too often, followers of Jesus boxed out people who needed to be close to Jesus. A crowd wanted to hear Jesus teach, so they boxed out a lame man. They wanted to recognize his importance by shutting out children. They tried to exalt Jesus by shushing blind Bartimaeus. And yet Jesus rebuked the religious crowds to connect with the outsiders. Do we get so focused on Jesus today that we fail to see the people who need him standing right behind us?