Midweek 6 People of the Passion "ONe of the Mob, the Follower Matthew 27:20-23

Midweek 6
People of the Passion
One of the Mob, the Follower
Text: Matthew 27:20-23

“Mob mentality,” is not a good thing. One moment a crowd cheers its team; the next moment it boos. One moment you have a milling crowd; the next, a frenzied mob. People in a crowd often act in a way they would not act if they were alone. It is like certain schools of fish that swim as a unit, as they swerve back and forth. Their individual identity is lost in the school of fish. Mobs take on a life of their own.

Once when I was young I got caught up in a demonstration. All of a sudden I was shouting and doing things I would never have done on my own. Looking back it was frightening how fast it happened. That sort of mob spirit seized the crowd that had gathered for Jesus’ trial. So let’s look more closely at how it must have been at Jesus’ passion for One of the Mob, the Follower.

When the priests and Pharisees planned Jesus’ trial, they did not want a large crowd of people there. Jesus’ followers came mostly from the common people. If they should become aroused to defend Jesus, the whole plan might fail and cave in under popular pressure. The Jewish leaders could not depend on the people to side with them. Better they should dispatch with Jesus as quietly and as secretly as possible.

However, when Pilate delayed the proceedings, a crowd gathered and became a force in determining the outcome of the trial. Some came to see the spe ctacle of Jesus on trial. Others probably came to see which prisoner would be released, as was the custom on this day. Most of them ended up in a shouting frenzy, as they cried for the shedding of Jesus’ blood; just the opposite of what we might have expected from them after the hosannas they cried out just a few days earlier.

The priests and elders quickly sized up the situation and moved to control the crowd. They filtered throughout the body, spreading propaganda, whispering innuendos against Jesus. They agitated and persuaded. They shouted loudly against Pilate and against Jesus at every opportunity, so as to drown out any opposing voices and to inspire the crowd to pick up the cry to condemn Jesus.

The crucial test came when Jesus and the notorious evil Barabbas were paired for the people to choose which to set free. The Jewish leaders had done their work well. When Pilate asked which prisoner should be released, Jesus or Barabbas, an instantaneous cry went up: “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!”

When Pilate asked what should be done with Jesus, the shout came back: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” When Pilate protested Jesus’ innocence, they shouted the more intensely: “Crucify him! Let him be crucified!” When Pilate had Jesus beaten and mocked and presented him again as innocent, the mob cried out: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” If there were any dissenting voices, they were not heard or were quickly hushed up by the wild-eyed mob.

But why did they turn like that against Jesus, the gentle loving Jesus who caused no harm to anyone? Why did the lips of some, who less than a week before had called “Hosanna” to Jesus, now cry, “Crucify him”? Why did the lips that once thanked and praised Jesus for some miracle of healing now join in the chant against him? Why did the mood of the crowd become so violently hostile? It is true that sin caused it. “Mob mentality” had seized them.

We don’t know what was going on in the thinking of every person who was there. But after what happened to me I can imagine how it was for one or another of the mob in the charged atmosphere of the proceedings; how he would get swept along with the prevailing mood.

Picture yourself there. You have been a follower of Jesus. But you have never given up the popular expectation that the promised Messiah (Jesus?) would be a bread king, an earthly ruler. You and your friends have looked for the Messiah to lead your country back to the grandeur of what Israel once was, as in the days of King David. You had placed those hopes on Jesus.

Now you arrive at Pilate’s court on that fateful Friday. You see Jesus: beaten, silent, meek, apparently giving up without a fight. You can hardly believe that he is the same man you cheered when he entered Jerusalem the preceding Sunday. You turn to the person next to you who seems to have been there for a while and ask, “What happened?”

He tells you that Jesus has blasphemed against God and that the priests have warned that he is dangerous to the peace of the nation. “But we thought he would lead us to better days,” you say, puzzled.

“And what has he done for the nation?” the man challenges. He tells you that the priests say that if Jesus is not stopped, he’ll lead us into trouble with Rome. Then Rome will raise taxes, disband the council, and force the people to worship the emperor.

You are confused. You think of some of the miracles Jesus had done, how he helped the people—even raised the dead. The man next to you counters that Jesus is just a troublemaker. He claims that even Barabbas is better than Jesus. At least Barabbas wants to free the nation from Roman tyranny.

Just then, Pilate appears with Barabbas and Jesus and asks which one he should release. “Give us Barabbas,” the man shouts. “Away with Jesus. Crucify him!” Crucify him!” the man next to you repeats. And you hear others in the crowd pick up the cry. You see Pilate gesturing in defense of Jesus. But if Jesus were the real Messiah, he wouldn’t be made helpless under the thumb of Pilate, would he? Pilate seems to be the only one who doubts what to do, and he is your enemy. Your doubts are all confirmed. Jesus must go. The cry goes up again, “Crucify him!’

“Crucify him!” you join in, convinced you were wrong ever to follow the pitiable wretch standing trial. He’s no king. He’s no Messiah. “Crucify him!”You become one with the mob. Jesus has no fight in him. Why should you speak up for him? You even cheer when the verdict is reached, and you follow to watch the crucifixion.

What happens to you afterward? Maybe you hear Jesus say, “It is finished,” and darkness sets in and the earthquake at his death shock you into realizing that there must be something to this Jesus who you shouted to be crucified just a few hours earlier. It was sad how the evil of the crowd that day compounded itself. The devil worked his worst that day. Nevertheless, Jesus came out the conqueror in the end.

We human beings have not changed appreciably since then. We still succumb to the pressures of mob action. We still listen to human rationalizations instead of listening to God’s Word. “Everybody is doing it” is one of our favorite excuses for sinning.

Group pressures still affect us. When you are in a crowd that is bent on doing something contrary to the way of Christ, for example, it is no easy task to stand alone on the side of Jesus.

Another example might be the drive for spiritual unity. Everyone is for it and the push is on. All you have to do is lighten up or ignore some parts of God’s Word to achieve it. Even some church leaders are telling you that absolute trust in Jesus and his Word are not necessary. And, if you object, there are many around to drown out your voice. While it is not a mob in the classic sense of a mob, it is a still a mob because the people have the mentality of “unity at all cost.”


So, where does that leave us? We need one another, not as a mob, but as a group of individual believers who are growing together in love and faith by the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to come together to remember Christ and to glorify his name for his sacrifice on the cross. We need to listen to Jesus and to avoid any kind of mob appeal that contradicts him. We need also to hold to our Savior in his mercy and forgiveness for the times we have failed him.

Let us remember the crucifixion and the resurrection. Let us rally around the cross of Christ. Let us tell the world that even those who in weakness and ignorance shout “Crucify him!” by their words and actions will find forgiveness and salvation in his crucifixion. Let us all live in repentance and faith and rejoice to be counted as children in the family of God.

May we be faithful to the end. Amen.

5th Sunday in Lent 4/10/11 Text: John11:21-22

5th Sunday in Lent
4/10/11
Text: John 11:21,22
Timing is Everything!

Today marks the fifth Sunday in Lent. We are just two weeks away from Easter. In today’s world timing is everything. In the time that Jesus was walking this earth timing was everything also. We see that in verse 21 of our Gospel reading when Martha greets Jesus. Listen to what she is saying. “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” In others words you are too late to help me.

I am sure that the wait had been agonizing, for Martha and Mary as they wondered when the Lord would get there. Then their brother died and it was too late. Martha’s fussed at Jesus. Lord where were you when I needed you? I had a need and you did not take care of it. What kind of friend are you? I thought you loved Lazarus? I thought you loved me?

But then she added those wonderful words of faith, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Martha said what she honestly thought, but it was tempered by her statement of faith, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."

Have you ever felt that way? “Where were you, Lord? You came too late. Where were you when my loved one died? Where were you when my marriage dissolved? Where were you when my parents divorced? Where were you when my father became an alcoholic? Where were you when I was cheated out of my promotion? Where were you when my child went astray?” the list goes on and on, for our lives are filled with tragedy.

If you have fussed at God for not doing something on your timetable, and who hasn’t? Please notice that the Lord did not reprove Martha for her words! That is a valuable lesson for us to learn. It is not sinful to tell God how you feel. That may sound like heresy in the light of some things you have been taught, but it is not a sin.

You owe your life, your present life and eternal life to him, but that does not mean you are not allowed to express your feelings of pain or disappointment to him. Goodness gracious, if you cannot share them with God who can you share them with? God wants you to be honest with him. He can take it. Let him know your true feelings, for only then can you be helped by God.

The problem is that we believe that “good Christians” never express their true inner feelings toward God. To question God’s timetable in our lives is unthinkable. Do not fear that God might consider you less of a Christian, for God is more patient and accepting than anyone you know, for after all he is God.

King David cried out to God. Elijah cried out to God. Samuel cried out to God. The Bible is full of people crying out to God. Why even the great man of God Peter cried out to God. Jesus cried out to God that night in the Garden of Gethsemane. All of them showed their struggle in following God’s timetable. God never told them to shut up or quit their whining. He never turned his back on them. He loved them and gave them what they needed to carry on.

I use to think that good strong Christians never cried; that is until my mother died. What a lesson in humility. I set there on the front row of the funeral home and cried like a baby. While I had grieved when my dad died I had no concept of level of the grief that came over me that day, for my mother had died a needless death.

I cried out to God that day and the days following. I asked God some hard questions and I imagine, no, I know, that that will be times when I will cry out to God again questioning his timing when it does not match my timing. I will do that, for just as I knew that day when my mom died and at her funeral I will not be sinning by questioning his timing in answering my prayers.

God wants us to pour our hearts out to him. That is what he wanted from Samuel. That is what he wanted from Elijah and King David. That is our loving understanding God, for when you cry out in faith as they and Martha did in today’s reading God will respond in love.

Notice Jesus’ response and Martha’s confession in verse 23 and 24. Jesus said to her, ‘”Your brother will rise again”. Martha replied “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day,” but there is no doubt that she was thinking, “I know, of course, but, Lord, what about the present? I’m hurting! Where were you?”

Jesus knew she was hurting and so he told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus statement says much more than the English translation allows, for in the language of the day Jesus said, “I am the I AM. In other words I am not just Jesus Son of God, I am God. This is the sixth great “I am” statement recorded in the book of John.

Martha responded, “Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” Martha had tasted grief and loss, yet she came through the trials of that time, as gold refined in the fire. Her confession was as great as Peter’s!

This great believer, a remarkable woman of faith even in her confession was not happy with Jesus’ timing. We have to face the fact that even the most spiritual suffer difficulties in understanding the delays of God’s love. They ask the hard questions. But God welcomes them and comforts them.

Notice how our Lord entered into the sisters’ grief. And after Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Sound familiar? It should for those are the same words that Martha had said to Jesus. Jesus wept, not for Lazarus, for he was going to raise him from the dead, but for those that were there that day. He felt their sorrow. That shows me that we don’t have an impersonal God. We have a God who cares about our lives on this earth.

As a baptized Christian God has entered your life and you have become one with him in his death and resurrection. He knows what it is like to live your life, for we are told in the first chapter of John that since Jesus knows our pain, God the Father knows our pain also, for we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

Therefore, seek him rather than the restoration of what you have lost. He will fill that void left by what you have lost. That is why Jesus doesn't talk to Martha about Lazarus. He talks about Jesus. "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'" I pray that you do, for God’s timing is everything. Amen.