Following the Crowd - Holy Week 2013

Following the Crowd – Holy Week 2013

 

“But Jesus did not entrust himself to the crowd, because He knew them all.  There was no need for anyone to tell him about them, because He himself knew what was in their hearts.”  John 2: 24-25)

 

In 2003 my wife and I were given tickets to the final round of the Byron Nelson Golf Classic in Las Calinas, TX.  We sat atop the 15^th green which sits atop a hill, providing us with an excellent view of the approach and to a fair amount of the course.  As the afternoon progressed we saw a large sea of humanity snaking its way along the course, heading our way.  As the massive crowd approached we could not help but become enveloped in it.  After all, who wouldn’t want to see Tiger Woods make a charge at the top of the leader board?  The experience was intoxicating and sobering at the same time.  On the one hand we felt connected to a major sports figure, a movement, and a group of people enveloped in the moment.  But on the other hand there was a certain guilt attached to that intoxication, a feeling that the same crowd experience could produce something quite awful.  Holy Week provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the phenomenon of the crowd.

 

Many preachers during Holy Week will point out the fickle nature of the crowds that converge on different days of this week.  The overwhelming support for Jesus on Palm Sunday so quickly turns to an angry mob seeking his death five days later.  How do we explain such fickleness?  One answer is to suggest the presence of two different crowds.  The Palm Sunday crowd was composed of the common people who experienced the mercy of Jesus in his teachings and miracles.  They turned out in a mass movement to show their support for the Son of David.  They disappear five days later because of the power and influence of the second crowd, composed of the authorities and religious leaders of Jerusalem.  Fear led the first crowd to stay away or join the second crowd.

 

However, this explanation overlooks the fact that throughout Jesus’ public ministry He did not trust crowds because their motivation is entirely wrong in making the most fundamental decisions of human existence.  There is a false security in crowds.  The presence of so many people leads us to think that joining them is a safe decision.  In fact, cheap Christian apologetics uses this argument of many members of believers to falsely bolster Christian faith.  Such decision making results in an accidental stumbling upon a correct decision, but one that cannot last because it is grounded in nothing more than the false security of the crowd.

 

The Lord Jesus declared himself to be the way, the truth, and the life.  He told Pilate that His kingdom rested on truth, not on violence, emotion, or numbers.  He who listens to the truth hears the voice of Christ and is a member of His kingdom.  Consequently, the follower of Jesus bases their decisions of fundamental importance on the truth, on what is, and not on a crowd mentality.  How many examples of authentic discipleship are found in the Gospels where the character overcomes the presence of the crowd in order to follow Jesus – Zacchaeus, Bartimaeus, the man born blind?  It is no wonder that the number of disciples at the Cross is small – Mary, John, a few other women, Joseph of Arimethea, Nicodemus.  Peter and the other apostles succumb to the fear of the crowd and stay away.  For at the end of the day it is the cross that determines whether we are a disciples grounded in the truth or a random member of the crowd. 

 

In every age, but especially our own, we are called to be active, engaged, and fully conscious followers of Jesus who do so out of the truth and for no other reason.  Only such engaged discipleship grounded in the truth can achieve holiness and transform the world.  How many Christians in name only, however, attempt to reduce Christianity to a crowd mentality by making of the faith a political ideology tied to one agenda or another?  Such an enterprise is not new – it was present in the crowds of Holy Week two thousand years ago, and look at what it produced. 

 

As we strive this Holy Week to be active, engaged disciples grounded in the truth and shunning the logic of the crowd, we pray together for this holy gift:  “Almighty Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your Son to be born of woman and to die on the cross, so that through the obedience of one man estrangement might be dissolved for all men.  Guide our minds by His truth and strengthen our lives by the example of his death, that we may live in union with You in the kingdom of your promise.  Grant this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

The Reproach of Egypt

The Reproach of Egypt – 4^th Sunday of Lent Year C

When I was a child there were many times when I did things I should not have done.  Inevitably my parents would discover my wrongdoing and question me about it.  More often than not I would deny it or lie about it, which only made matters worse.  Why would I deny or lie about something that was clearly known by my parents and undeniable?  I did not want to disappoint them.  I did not want to lose their respect.  The fear of disappointing parents or losing their respect is why most children lie about wrongdoing.  We see this phenomenon throughout salvation history:  Adam and Eve look to blame others for their wrongdoing; Cain denies killing his brother; Joseph’s brothers concoct a great scheme to hide their crime.  As children of God we do not want to disappoint our Heavenly Father, but instead of admitting to it and seeking His mercy we create many elaborate ways to hide this reality.

The slavery of Egypt represents the great reproach of God for the sins of Israel.  Liberation from slavery is the great event of Israel’s history because liberation from the physical slavery of Egypt is the outward sign of their liberation from their sins against God.  And yet throughout their wanderings in the desert the people of Israel continue to long for their captivity in Egypt.  How often did they think that it would be better to be slaves in Egypt than to die of starvation, dehydration, the serpents, and all the other calamities they suffered?  Even though God had removed the reproach of Egypt from the people of Israel, the faith of the people still wandered to other places.

The prodigal son is in many ways the personification of the people of Israel.  The son goes to his father, asking for his inheritance in advance, which essentially means he wants his father dead.  There could be no greater insult to a parent, and yet this is the reality of sin and turning away from God.  In choosing other things we essentially say that we want our heavenly Father dead.  And the son goes off to spend his inheritance on wanton living.  Eventually, the natural consequences of his actions lead to his total impoverishment.  He has relied on his own wits up to this point, and there is no good way out of his predicament.

So the son decides finally to return to his father’s house.  A real act of conversion has taken place within him, and he forms within his mind a scenario whereby he begs mercy from his father.  The son knows that he should not expect mercy.  Most probably his father has already disowned him; that was the natural course of action in those days.  And yet, while he is still a long way from home, the son sees his father searching for him!  How often has God searched the byways for us, but we were not looking for him? 

The father restores this wayward child of his back to the son’s original position in the paternal household.  Naturally someone will object, and sure enough his older brother is indignant at such beneficence on the part of the father.  What about justice?  What about my rights?  So says the older son.  But the older son has nothing to fear – he too is always a part of the father’s house.  Justice dwells secure in God’s house, but mercy must have a place too – and the greater place besides! 

Thus, in this story of the prodigal son we have the complete undoing of the sordid history of the Jewish people to this point.  Brothers once at odds with one another are restored under the household of God.  The cycle of revenge and violence that is such a part of Israel’s history and thought is shattered by the mercy and love of the Father.  We can truly say with Paul in the second reading that we are a new creation.  We are back in Eden and not in Egypt.  The old things have indeed passed away.  For the Lord Jesus has brought the message and example of reconciliation that must now become the fundamental mission for the followers of Jesus.  We cannot return to our old ways of revenge and violence.  We must reject them and be reconciliation and peace in the midst of this world. 

To live this vocation, we must have recourse to God’s aid and guidance at all times.  And so we pray:  “Let us pray, that by growing in love this Lenten season we may bring the peace of Christ to our world.  God our Father, your word, Jesus Christ, spoke peace to a sinful world and brought mankind the gift of reconciliation by the suffering and death he endured.  Teach us, the people who bear his name, to follow the example he gave us; may our faith, hope, and charity turn hatred to love, conflict to peace, death to eternal life.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”