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Feb 25, 2018

Faces at the Cross: The Crowds

Faces at the Cross: The Crowds

Passage: Mark 11:1-10

Speaker: Michael E. Karunas

Series: Lent Sermon Series

Category: 2018 Lent Sermon Series

Toward the end of his life, Jesus traveled from his home in Galilee to Jerusalem.  It was a slow meandering journey that covered about 60 miles.  Jesus traveled on foot, stopping to teach along the way.  Everywhere he went, crowds followed him.  In fact, ever since he began his ministry some three years earlier, “everyone” was amazed at what he was saying and doing.  So great multitudes and crowds were continually with him.  At the beginning of the last week of his life, Jesus made it to the capital city.  This is how it happened: Mark 11:1-10

This is not just a description of a celebratory parade – that we associate with Palm Sunday.   It is full of prophecy and symbolism.  Jesus rides into town on a colt, which two disciples find for him.  According to the OT prophet Zechariah, when the Messiah (the chosen one of God) would appear, he would be seen riding on a colt or a donkey.  Jesus on a colt signifies that he is the Ruler of Heaven; the Anointed one sent to fulfill God’s plans.  With Jesus on the colt, a crowd of people put their cloaks on the ground in front of him.  Why a crowd?  Because there was always a crowd around him.  And why cloaks, forming a carpeted pathway on which Jesus could ride?  According to 2 Kings (9:13), this is what people did to acknowledge a king coming to power.  As he would ascend the stairs to his throne for the first time, they would spread their outer garments on the ground.  A crowd with cloaks symbolizes that Jesus is Ruler of Earth. 

Finally, the crowd does something else.  They wave branches cut from trees in the fields and lay them at Jesus’ feet also.  An OT traditional festival well known to the people was called the Festival of Booths.  Every year, after the harvest, people would spend 7 days living in tents (or booths) outside their homes.  This was to remind them of how their ancestors once lived in tents in the wilderness.  Which they did because God delivered them from slavery in Egypt.  And during those 7 days living in tents, they were to praise God by waving branches.  So branches signify that “God is our deliverer.”  Branches mean victory.  But not just that “we won.”  Rather, “we won because God delivered us.”  So waving branches around Jesus signifies that Jesus is the one God chooses to deliver us. 

Everything in this story points to the truth that Jesus is the savior and… that the crowd understands this!  They even quote PS 118 when they see him: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Jesus spent 3 years trying to get his disciples to understand him – his mission, purpose and identity.  Finally, it seems, it has all come together.  Hallelujah!  Praise God!  But then… how does this explain what happened just 5 days later?  Mark 15:6-15

Not even a week later the crowd comes together again.  This time before Pilate.  He’s a Roman Prefect – ruler of this part of the Empire.  Only a Roman Prefect could sentence someone to death, which was the issue here.  It’s a trial and Pilate stands between two.  Jesus and Barabbas.  Both arrested and accused, but very different.  Jesus is silent before his accusations, which is meant to show his innocence.  Barabbas is a known murderer and no one questions his guilt.  Pilate offers to set only one of them free and the crowd chooses Barabbas!  Of course, they have been incited by the religious leaders who have been wanting Jesus dead for some time.  And the crowd does the dirty work for them.  Not only do they ask for Barabbas’ freedom, they demand that Jesus be killed.  Even when Pilate gives them a chance to rethink this, they “shout all the more,” let him die! 

Crowds are capable of great good!  February is Black History Month and we might especially think of the Civil Rights Movement at this time of year.  And there is a #metoo movement going on today to bring attention to sexual harassment in the workplace.  Social movements that swing the pendulum of society in an arc of justice are possible only because  enjoyed crowds come together to protest injustice.  But crowds are also capable of great tragedy.  It is well documented that the best time to commit a crime is in broad daylight, in the midst of a crowd of people.  The Bystander Effect is the idea that no one in the crowd will step up and stop the crime, because everyone will assume that someone else will do it.  By our action (or possibly inaction) we can commit great sin as a crowd of people. 

In his autobiography, St. Augustine spoke of this over 1600 years ago.  He said that as he walked home from school, he would pass a pear tree behind a walled fence that belonged to a neighbor.  If he was alone, he would simply pass by it.  But if he was with friends (a crowd) they would stop, climb the fence, and steal the trees.  We commit sins in a crowd that we never would alone.  That’s essentially what cyber-bullying is today.  An angry mob with herd mentality ganging up on a designated victim by posting horrible things online that, individually, would never be spoken face to face. 

As our scriptures show us today there is a dual nature to crowds.  Coming together as a large group can bring out the best and worst in us.  We need look no further than a family reunion to see this up close.  “Just think… the whole family will be together for one week under the same roof – that will be so much fun!”  And “Oh no… the whole family will be together for one week under the same roof – that’s not going to end well.”  We can imagine both these statements being spoken – and both being true – because crowds can be fickle, changing its mind and allegiances pretty easily.  Americans love underdog stories and we crowd around in support of the underdog as he struggles to climb the mountain.  But once he’s been on top for a while, and is no longer a “lovable loser,” we (the same crowd that lifted him up) can easily tear him down as we move on to the next underdog to support.  Or… the same crowd that welcomed Jesus to town with grand expressions of faith one day, demanded that he be sent to death the next.

Maybe crowds are fickle in this way because they are made up of individuals who are fickle too; capable of great good one moment and of great failure and disappointment the next.  Individuals like Peter – who famously promised to die for Jesus before he would ever deny him, yet who, within a few hours, ran away claiming not to have known even Jesus’ name.  Individuals like us – who praise God one day, but the next cry out in anger and despair, challenging God by saying “What have you done for me lately?  Yes, I know you did this thing yesterday but what will you do today???”

The season of Lent is about not hiding in the crowd.  It’s easy to point our finger of blame – at Peter or at Judas or at Pilate or at the religious leaders – and say “that’s the reason for Jesus’ demise.”  But every time we point one finger outward, there are still 3 more pointing back at us.  That’s the spirit of the season of Lent.  It’s about standing not only in the crowd of Palm Sunday, when our faith is triumphant and our behavior is right in line with God’s will for us.  It’s about standing in the crowd on Good Friday too – and seeing and hearing ourselves choose Barabbas for life and Jesus for death.  It’s about confronting the ways we are culpable of sin and failure and disappointment.  It’s about looking at how the problems lie with us, and not with others around us.  It’s about being honest about our own tendency to stand by and watch the innocent suffer and our own tacit approval at how the guilty get set free yet again.  One thing is sure: whenever there is something like sexual harassment, child abuse, domestic violence taking place, there is almost always a crowd of people that has remained silent, while the innocent suffer more and the actions of the guilty are tacitly approved.   

It’s not much fun.  We’d rather point out the faults in others than in ourselves.  But the Good News is the only when put the finger back at ourselves, and step out of the crowd to admit our own failures and disappointments, are we in the perfect position to receive the grace and forgiveness that Jesus rode into town for – and died on the cross for.