Mob Mentality

"A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this?' The crowds answered, 'This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee." Matthew 21:8-11

It has been said that this moment in Jesus’ life - entering into Jerusalem - was considered to be a “triumph”, as if Jesus had now made His final move toward victory over the Romans. I suppose this could be true in a way, but I also think this interpretation we have about Jesus coming into Jerusalem as "triumphant" is misleading and fails to acknowledge some historical and cultural truths. I also think that looking at this passage in such a way sort of lets us “off the hook”.

Notice that when the people greet Jesus riding into town on a donkey, they are greeting the “Son of David”. It is important when reading Matthew that we take a distinctly Jewish perspective of what the writer is actually saying. It is obvious in this reference that the great King David is of the lineage that gives Jesus His own credibility in the eyes of the people. I’m not so sure that these people are giving Him much more than this even though verse 11 reveals at least something: “multitudes said, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

There was much more that the people were looking forward to than what Jesus had any intention of doing – at least in THIS lifetime. And when Jesus failed to overthrow the Roman government and restore King David’s Hebrew tradition of, quite literally, “ONE NATION UNDER GOD”, He began to lose favor with the very crowd who had only recently received Him with great honor and eager anticipation.

What the people could not see, however, is that even though the Roman government seems to have tried to remove the Jew’s own national “identity”, the Romans were only a symptom of a much greater evil. The people who were virtually lining the streets to be “saved” had no concept of what it was they needed to be “saved” from beyond the Roman government. It would seem, then, that the people who were lining the road and greeting the “Son of David” were more likely “wannabe warriors” who were fully prepared to do battle with the Romans and have them ejected from Jerusalem – if only someone would take the leadership role.

I wonder why they didn’t seem to notice that Jesus was riding on a donkey instead of a majestic STEED or on a battle chariot and that He was not carrying any weapons of war or wearing any sort of body armor and had no battle-ready soldiers following behind Him.

We are now entering into the time of “Holy Week” which for the life of the Church is a time of great reflection – and GREAT SORROWS - in which we remember the final days leading up to the crucifixion of Christ. We are to take these passages and dig much deeper into the heart of what the writers were trying to say – but not so that we can be more historically accurate.

Instead, we should be more mindful of how easy it would be to repeat such happenings today and realize how easily we can be so caught up in our own misery and seek someone to blame for how things are.

Consider the current presidential administration. The war in Iraq seems to have no end in sight, and we are losing faith in the administration’s ability to put a workable timetable for withdrawal in place. In fact, we don’t even know if withdrawal will ever be an option. Where was the outcry when the president was virtually PROMISING war to the United States and the United Nations? Why were we not protesting then?

We have lost faith over time because, like the Jews in early Jerusalem, we were angry at someone. The anticipated results did not come to fruition. We did not expect to become bogged down as we are now. We were angry at Muslims in general, and we allowed ourselves to be convinced that Saddam Hussein was the end-all, be-all personification of evil that he may well be. We know what this man was capable of, and we were convinced that removing this man from power would settle the score and “make the world safer”. Now we’re not so sure.

Politics aside, no man and no government on this earth has absolute power over us now anymore than the Romans had absolute power over the Jews of ancient Jerusalem. Yet like the Jews, we needed someone to personify our fears and justify our anger. Now that the war continues, we are not so pleased with the president. We have placed all our faith in ONE MAN to make our lives better and make our world safer without realizing that the powers and “principalities” that are a genuine threat cannot be overcome by man.

We are painfully aware of our need for salvation – I’m just not so sure that we are fully aware of what or whom we need to be saved from! Jesus never promised His followers an easy way in this life. He never promised us fame or fortune, and He never suggested for one moment that material wealth would be key to our success and happiness. And He never came close to telling us that the threat to our eternal soul existed in this world

- EXCEPT by our own acts and words.

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.” Matthew 10:28

When we become afraid, we seek others to share in our fear. We want them to be as afraid as we are, and we want to gang up against that which causes us to fear. It seems to be an instinct we have toward self-preservation.

In the end, however, we discover that our fears are generally unfounded and without merit. We have allowed ourselves to believe that we are on our own and that we have been left alone to fend for ourselves.

We need not look into the past to try and determine for ourselves how the Jews must have acted or what they must have been thinking. That time is past, and we have proclaimed for ourselves a Savior who has promised that He will one day come again. But before He arrives and rides through the city’s gate and before we throw our coats on the ground and shout “Hosanna”, it may be that we need to examine for ourselves WHY we are so glad to see Him. Will our joy be only for our own sakes or for the sake of His Glory?