Episode 11: "CHINATOWN MOURNS FOR ENG FOOI SHUE", Luke 9 10-17

The Ordinary Times

Contrary to my mother’s advice, I’ve found that you can learn a lot from following a crowd. At least that’s what one author found in a New York Times article from July 15, 1929 about the death of Eng Fooi Shue (one of the leading merchants of Chinatown) and the crowds that gathered to mourn him. The newspaper's publisher learned to use that crowd to make one individual successful: himself. Yet in those unbelievable numbers that made up that crowd there are individual deaths like Eng Fooi Shue’s, and group suffering like his family back home in China. But every now and then there are individual lives like Dr. Huey Kin, the Presbyterian pastor who oversaw the funeral... Individuals that desire to be used for the success of the crowd. In fact I don’t just see it in the New York Times story but also in our Scripture reading of Luke 9:10-17. One of Jesus’ greatest gifts was his care for the crowd. He was a Messiah with mercy for the multitudes.