Introduction:
This is a message about three crowds. In the grip of individualism, we have too often neglected to heed what the Bible teaches about group behavior, and the results of this neglect are often tragic.
The Text:
“And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (Matt. 21:8-9).
“And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it” ( Matt. 27: 23-24).
“Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language . . . Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts. 2:6,22-23 ).
Overview:
As mentioned, this is a message about three crowds. The first is the crowd that rejoiced at the Triumphal Entry. Matthew here says that it was a great multitude, but Luke is more specific, saying that they were disciples (Luke 19:37). The second crowd was the one assembled by Christ’s adversaries, and they were there for blood. It is customary for Christian preachers to use wild difference between the Palm Sunday crowd and the Good Friday crowd as a textbook case of the fickleness of crowds. But this is too facile; we have no reason for supposing the crowds were composed of the same people, most of whom had now changed their minds. It would be more accurate to see these two crowds as adversarial, locked in a conflict over the soul of their city. But even here, we must not come to superficial conclusions. “Don’t blame me, I vote for . . .” is a mark of individualism, not covenantal thinking. We have the third crowd, gathered at random by the sound of wind on Pentecost. And what does Peter say to this group. “Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain . . ”
Another One and Many Problem:
Cities and nations have a true corporate identity, and God treats them accordingly. He does this through His signed actions, seen throughout the Bible, and He does this through His unsigned actions. This last week, our city had a school bond election. The bond passed with 56% of the vote, but this does not mean it applies to 56% of the population. This was an action by which our town deliberated and made up its mind. Everyone is responsible for the results. We see that in the contrast between these passages. Consider the collision between the first two crowds as the “election.” Those who wanted to honor Jesus as the Messiah lost the election, and those who wanted to kill Him won it. When Peter addresses the populace after the resurrection, he treats it as the responsiblity of the city generally—as it was. And God did the same thing, visiting desolation on that city in 70 A.D. And when the Romans beseiged the city, Jesus told His followers to head for the hills (Matt. 24:15-16). He did not say, “Just stay home, and when the soldiers come to your house to burn it, say, ‘I was part of the Palm Sunday crowd, not the Good Friday crowd.’” Not everyone agreed to the murder of Jesus, but everyone had to flee.
Gathering a Crowd
It is interesting to note the occasion for each of these crowds gathering. The first gathered because word had gotten out that Jesus was arriving, and there was a spontaneous assembly of disciples rejoicing. A man riding into town on a donkey is not an event that in itself would gather a crowd. Something else was happening. With the second crowd, it bears all the marks of a staged event. Jesus was tried at night, contrary to their law, and then they all showed up at Pilate’s house first thing in the morning (John 18:28). They were railroading Jesus, and they wanted empty streets for their crowds to run free in. The third crowd was assembled as the result of the miraculous events of Pentecost, and when the preaching and baptizing was done, there was yet another crowd—the three thousand who had been converted.
Different Crowds:
Ancient pagan humanism and modern secular humanism both believed that “man is the measure of all things.” Because man is the functional deity, it is necessary for that deity to be undivided. This is why humanists of all stripes insist upon unanimity. They are fighting for the integrity of their god. And this is why, in that old system, whenever turmoil or discord entered into society of people, it was absolutely necessary to find out who the culprit was—who was the traitor, who was the hater of mankind? When they found him, they would wheel on him in a unanimous judgment, and they would cleanse the society of her pollution by killing or exiling the scapegoat. Ideally, the victim would confess to his crime before the judgment—thus sealing the need for unanimity. This why Stalinist show trials wanted the victims to confess their complicity. This is what Job’s three friends were after, and this is why Job’s refusal to admit his guilt had such a disruptive effect with them.
What Has Christ Done?
Until the Great Commission is completed, the death and resurrection of Christ denies all secular societies what they most crave—unanimity, which is to say, a unified godhead. Jesus has established a new and better way of being human. He has established His kingdom in the midst of all the kingdoms of earth. Each society now has two ways of being human, and they are mutually exclusive. Now there are always two crowds.
And in this new society, this new city, we have been commissioned to remember this as our central story. Jesus was an innocent man, a perfect man. The authorities, as respectable as such authorities always are, set up a kangaroo trial to deal with the perfect nuisance of a sinless man. In a gross miscarriage of justice, they murdered the Author of Life. Some try to point the finger of guilt at Jerusalem, but there is not a city under heaven that would not have done exactly the same thing. And because this is our central story, we must recognize that the imagination of unconverted man is now wounded forever. And there is no healing in the old ways.