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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