Jesus Before Pilate and the “Wisdom” of Crowds
Matthew 27:15-26, NIV - Now it was the governor’s
custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time, they had a well-known prisoner
whose name was Jesus Barabbas. So when
the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release
to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he knew it was out of self-interest that
they had handed Jesus over to him.
While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife
sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I
have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd
to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
asked the governor.
“Barabbas,” they answered.
“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the
Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They all answered, “Crucify him!”
“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that
instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of
the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our
children!”
Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus
flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
We read
this passage in the twenty-first century when Christianity is one of the world’s
major faith traditions and it’s hard to imagine how a crowd would turn on Jesus
the way they did. It is probable that at
least some in that crowd had been in the crowd just a few days earlier when Jesus
entered into Jerusalem on a donkey. Then,
they chanted “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Those highest “hosannas” were now transformed
into the blood thirsty “crucify him!”
The dangerous
nature of crowds is that clever instigators can build momentum for a sinister
idea that most in the crowd would have never pursued on their own. Peaceful protests turn violent with a
well-timed disruption. A gathering of curious
onlookers is whipped into riotous frenzy by skillful orators. Really bad ideas seem not so bad when
everyone else around you seems to think they are good.
What’s
interesting about this crowd shouting “crucify him” is that the undisputed leader
in the situation is the one swayed by the crowd. Pilate was certainly no angel, but he really
has no interest in killing Jesus. In addition,
he’s got his wife sending him messages to avoid doing anything with Jesus
because of the nightmares she’s had about Him.
It seems clear that Pilate’s play here is to release Jesus and make the
crowd happy at a time when the city is overcrowded with people there for Passover. But the religious leaders’ agenda (that has
been well-documented by Matthew by this point) is to kill Jesus and so they
pull their strings and push their buttons to turn the pious pilgrims into an
angry mob. People who were their to
celebrate God’s deliverance of their people from the angel of death in Egypt now
deliver God’s Son to death on a Roman cross.
On
countless occasions, Edmund Burke has been quoted as saying, “The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” However, there is no evidence that Burke ever
said it. Furthermore, even though the
sentence evokes strong emotion, it just isn’t true. It takes way more than the inaction of good
people for evil to prosper. Those
committed to the evil goals must be brilliant and persistent. It takes winning others over to the dark
mission, often recasting nefarious goals in bright and positive colors. Certainly, it helps if those who see the evil
remain quiet, but evil isn’t the inevitable result of good people who do
nothing; it’s the gradual convincing of more and more people that the evil isn’t
evil at all, but in fact the greatest good.
Burke did actually say something
like this in his “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (1770). Here’s what he said; “When bad men combine,
the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice
in a contemptible struggle.”
In
order to combat the momentum of crowds, good people “must associate.” The crucifixion of Jesus, over the course of
nearly two thousand years, has formed the one of the largest “associations” the
world has ever known – the Christian Church.
But the passage above warns those who belong to this association that we
are not immune to the same phenomena that led to the crowd turning on
Jesus. Christians since the time of
Jesus, have perpetrated heinous and barbarous acts in Jesus’s name (The Crusades,
Inquisition, Witch Trials, and countless others) that Jesus would surely say “I
know you not” to those who name Him as their inspiration. When such evils begin to gain traction, those
who recognize it as evil must “re-associate” in order to counteract the
momentum. It’s not enough to simply call
out evil; we must join hands and oppose it lest Jesus be handed over for
crucifixion once again.
Question: Have you
found yourself “going with the flow” when deep down, you knew “the flow” was
headed in the wrong direction?
Prayer: God forgive
us when we get swept away by popular, but dubious ideas because they are popular. Build into our spirits Your vision of what’s
right and help us find others with whom we can join hands and be allies for Your
Good. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for all kinds of teachers you know today.
Song: Howard Gray -
Lee Domann
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