Have you ever considered the mob mentality that went from “Hosanna, Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel. Hosanna in the highest heaven,” to the crowd crying, “give us Barabbas?”
Palm Sunday was the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem with Christ himself the Parade Master… on a donkey! Cloaks and palm fronds littered the roadway in homage for his celebratory entry by those who had witnessed his miraculous actions and deeds.
But by Friday, the crowd, whipped into a frenzy by their chief religious’ leaders, were asking for the release of an insurrectionist and murderer – Barabbas – over the “King of the Jews.”
So how could this happen? It plays out to this very day: groupthink and illogic in large groups or crowds may have little correlation to one’s own personal belief. Some in the crowd knew the truth – don’t forget Peter who pretended he didn’t know Jesus – but to fit in they go along to get along. Today, “Social Influencers” hold great sway over those who want to imitate them, even though the vast majority will never look, have, feel, or own what the “influencers” are “selling.”
The Jewish Chief Priest, elders and the other high religious officials were hell-bent on killing Jesus for a variety of reasons because he threatened the status quo. It didn’t help matters that Jesus entered the temple and turned over the money tables! And he even said he was the “Christ, the Son of God!”
Because the Jews could not kill Jesus, they sic’d the Romans on him because they had the power of the state to execute insurrectionists! The religious crew accused Jesus of misleading “our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar…” (I guess they forgot the time Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.")
Wow, what a mutineer he was! (Like the Jews wanted to pay burdensome taxes to Rome!) And that would be punishable by death; after all, Barabbas apparently had fomented some type of rebellion against Rome. And he was about to be crucified.
Because the Chief Priest, elders and other leaders were of high social and religious status, it wasn’t too hard for them to intimidate those of a lessor social economic and educational status to bear false witness against Jesus, even though individually the poor, the blind, the hungry, and the lame all knew the truth of who Jesus was; after all, many of them were recipients of his great love and compassion.
Although Pilate found no fault in Jesus, he was goaded into offering up either Barabbas or Jesus to the riotous mob. The crowd was working purely on emotions prompted by their religious leaders, the decision makers: If the Chief Priest says it, it must be true! So, the choir joined in with the guy with the bull horn yelling the loudest: Give us our buddy, our rebel against Rome, Barabbas! He’s one of us!
So, in the end, Pilate, after asking for the third time what evil Jesus had done, gave in to the urgent and demanding crowd, as they screamed, “crucify, crucify him!” Pilate tried to make a rational decision based on facts (including a warning from his wife not to have anything to do with “that righteous man…”) but he was eventually affected by groupthink and the demands of the mob influencers. And with that Jesus was crucified.
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”
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