Today is Palm Sunday. The lectionary reading (Matthew 21:
1:11) is the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The crowds
turned out with cheering and waving branches, acknowledging Jesus as a great
leader.
As I read the story each year I wonder again at the
fickleness of humanity. When we had very small children in the house, if we
watched any kinds of competition, sporting or otherwise, they would decide who
to support. However, if the other team started to win, they would change their
allegiance. Backwards and forwards but always supporting the winner!
Of course, that changed with maturity as they started to
understand about loyalty and consistency. Yet everyone loves a winner. Listen
to the roars when a team scores a goal! I still remember as a child when in
1966, England won the world cup in football. One of the team members lived in
our small village. As he arrived home everyone turned out to welcome him, the
streets were lined as he drove past and the cheers rang out. There was an
excitement in the air created by the crowd which, in turn, drove the crowd to
cheer even more.
In this story, the same thing is happening. Jesus rode from
Bethphage to Jerusalem and the crowds turned out. They were cheering, they were
laying cloaks and branches on the ground. A winner was coming to town, energy
and excitement were in the air. The writer of the gospel says, “the whole city
was in turmoil” (10). The people wanted to know what was happening, what had stirred
up the crowd.
The same gospel tells a different story a week later. It is
one of pain and suffering, not one of excitement and cheering. I often wonder
how many of the crowd who shouted, “Hosanna”(9), a week later shouted “Let him
be crucified” (27:22).
It would be interesting to read a Gallup poll on the numbers
and percentages, but, obviously, such things didn’t exist. So, one can only
wonder . . .
I think this story shows how fickle human beings are. Women’s Ways of Knowing (Belenky et al
1986) is a great book. It details the results of some in-depth research with
women. The aim was to try and understand how women think, make choices and
decisions about their own lives. I found it interesting that the research
showed people will often just go with the majority or follow the opinion
expressed by a perceived authority.
This seems to be exactly what happened here for the crowds.
While all were cheering, that must be the right thing to do, yet when the call
changes to “crucify” the crowd follows.
However, there is hope. Not everyone followed the crowd.
Friends and relatives remained at the foot of the cross. Their loyalty remained
consistent.
I wonder what I would
have done? It is hard to go against a crowd.
I wonder what I would have done? For me that is the
challenge of this passage.
(Image: Cayuga Lake, April 2017)
