Early on in the narrative of Jesus’ ministry, the crowd want to make him King.

Both occasions are after he has miraculously fed them (John 6:12-15) and extravagantly made wine from water. (John 2:23-25).
In a publicist’s nightmare, on both occasions Jesus withdraws from the projection and idolization, “because he knew what was in people’s hearts”.

What was it that Jesus knew?

Carl Jung in his work Aion, has helped us understand the psychology of projection which I unpack in this video.

Understanding how we project our own gold out of the shadows of the unconscious can help us understand (if not desist), from falling in love, worshiping the wrong objects, and even from falling prey to scapegoating others when they don’t meet our unrealistic expectations of them.

We cannot blame the devil, nor make Jesus responsible for our salvation.

As the poet Mary Oliver says, “You are the only person you can save.”