Crowds are remarkably fickle

Crowds are remarkably fickle. They are easily influenced. Crowds followed Jesus wherever he went enjoying the miracles, hoping to be fed and generally in it for themselves. 

When Jesus entered Jerusalem just a week before his crucifixion, the crowd, inspired I think by the Holy Spirit, welcomed him with great enthusiasm shouting ‘Hosanna. Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord.’ They laid branches and clothes on the road and gave Jesus the right royal welcome that he deserved. 

There would have been crowds in Jerusalem all week, there for the Passover but when Jesus was arrested, tried and sentenced to death this same crowd who had been following him for years, had welcomed him into Jerusalem, turned on him and egged on by the religious leaders bayed for his blood. Jesus was deserted by not just the disciples, but also the crowd. 

Several weeks later the crowd were back in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost and drawn by the sound of rushing wind, they gathered and Peter preached his famous sermon and the fickle crowd who had deserted Jesus in their droves now turned to him to receive salvation. What a glorious day!

In these uncertain days of coronavirus, how essential it is that we are disciples of Jesus and not just part of the crowd. Crowds are notorious for yelling for what they want and not necessarily what’s good for everyone. We only have to see how crowds gather in complete defiance of government rules for our safety to do what they want. 

We are called to be people who follow Jesus and are influenced by what he is doing in these days. There are plenty of prophets of doom but not nearly enough prophets who bring the good news of Jesus and his salvation. The crowd is baying for lockdown or no lockdown and especially for their right to celebrate Christmas as they want to. They want a ‘normal’ Christmas but it is almost certain that is the one thing we won’t be having.

This must be the year when the Church gets out of their buildings and proclaims that Christmas is not about family, children, parties, presents or anything else, but about the birth of Jesus Christ. As Christians let’s focus on that – celebrating that in whatever way we can, bringing the good news of Jesus wherever we can and telling of his great love whenever and however we can.  

The amazing news in the midst of all this gloom is that God became Man and dwelt amongst us. As Christians we must tell of how we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth. Everyone can experience this.

I am hoping and praying that the Church will get out onto the streets this Christmas and be a different crowd – an army of Godly followers not following the crowd but bringing the crowd to Jesus. 

Jesus wept over Jerusalem

And as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace- but now it is hidden from your eyes. Luke 19: 41 – 42

…. because you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you Luke 19: 44

Jesus was entering Jerusalem in triumphal procession on a donkey with the crowds waving palm branches and shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’. As he approached the city, he wept over it. He knew he was going to be tried, condemned, mocked, beaten and crucified in Jerusalem yet he wept over it. He was not weeping for himself or for the terrible things that would happen to him but because this city, chosen by God to be the place where his glory dwelt, had not recognised the one that God had sent to them.

Jerusalem, where the temple was with all the temple worship, teachers of the law, Pharisees and Sadducees should all have recognised the Messiah when he came, but instead had rejected him and would shortly put their Messiah to death. The religious leaders would have been familiar with the Scriptures about the Messiah but when Jesus came doing all the things that had been promised, they plotted and finally succeeded in killing him.

Jesus also wept over this city because he saw that in years to come Jerusalem would be overthrown and destroyed and the temple with it because of their unbelief. This happened when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70AD. What sorrow he must have felt.

Unfortunately that same spirit of unbelief that opposes the things of God is just as prevalent today. Often God is doing something and it is the religious people in churches who oppose it, not the sinners outside the church. They will be welcoming what God is doing just as the crowd in Jerusalem welcomed Jesus. God may well arrive in an unexpected manner or way that we do not like. We may think things are undignified or not strictly Biblical because not everything that happens can always be found in Scripture but are people being saved, healed, set free? The fruit of God’s love and presence should be evident; people falling in love with God in wonderful ways. Yet there will be the religious people who refuse to recognise what God is doing and miss the blessing.

Let us be open hearted to what God is doing without being gullible but let us trust the Holy Spirit to keep us from error and root out the religious spirit that opposes that which it cannot understand or control. I want God to rejoice over what is happening in our churches not weep over what we missed because we failed to recognise that God was visiting us.