Three Crowds
Jesus Enters Jerusalem
‘Crucify! Crucify!’
Pentecost
If I had been there watching what was happening – where would I have been standing?
What would I have made of the crowd with palm branches and a man riding on a donkey? Or hearing a mob crying out for someone already covered in blood to be crucified. Or the wind, and the flames, and the preaching at Pentecost?
A popular misconception goes as follows:
‘Look at the Jews of Jesus’ day – one moment they’re laying down their cloaks in front of him and waving palm branches to welcome him into Jerusalem and hailing him as The King of Israel, and the next they’re like a mob crying out for him to be crucified. How fickle!’
It was Passover. Jewish males were commanded under the Law of Moses to attend the three great feasts in Jerusalem each year (Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles). We get a picture in Luke’s gospel when Mary and Joseph with their friends and relatives lose Jesus because he had stayed behind in the temple listening to the teachers and asking questions. Thousands of family groups were travelling to and from Jerusalem from all directions: North, East, South, and West. The city streets would have been full, and noisy with the bleating of thousands of sheep and other animals ready for sacrifice in the Temple.
A commotion on one side of Jerusalem would easily be completely missed by pilgrims on the other side of the city.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey from Bethany descending from the Mount of Olives. Luke’s account makes it quite clear who made up the crowd who were shouting out ‘Hosannah to the Son of David’ and ‘King of Israel’; it was the multitude of his disciples who had been travelling with him. No doubt others joined in, some observing from the side-lines, and a few ready to denounce him.
Later that week, the Chief priests and the Jewish rulers ‘stirred up the crowd’ who were with them to shout ‘Crucify!’ when Pilate asked what should be done with him.
I doubt very much if any individual in the mob crying out for Jesus to be crucified had been amongst those laying down their garments when the crowd hailed him as the Son of David. His disciples may well have been as confused looking on at the tragic events unfolding, but to suggest that they had abandoned ship and were baying for his blood is not only far-fetched it has the whiff of something far worse – dismissing Jews as fickle.
Israel was divided. Jerusalem was divided. Jesus was controversial.
Jesus had said ‘Do not think I have come to bring peace on earth. No, I did not come to bring peace but a sword’. When Jesus was a child Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary and Jesus and said to Mary ‘This child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be spoken against…that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed’. All four gospels testify how Jesus divided the nation. On the whole the rulers, the priests, the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees were opposed and many sided with them – fearing, as they did, that Jesus not only wasn’t who he claimed to be but that Israel would collapse and their privileges under Roman rule would be removed if Jesus instigated insurrection.
This sense of division is preserved quite clearly in the account of the Day of Pentecost. Imagine the scene. Just fifty days after Passover the pilgrims are back.
‘…devout Jews from every nation under heaven…Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Pontus Asia…’
The dramatic events of Pentecost, early in the morning, start to unfold:
‘And suddenly there came from heaven the sound of a rushing mighty wind…and fire sat on each of the disciples (probably 120 men and women). They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance’.
A crowd gathers. Peter preaches. Again division:
‘Those who gladly received his word were baptized…about 3000 were added’.
‘…others mocking said ‘they’re drunk!’’
Where would you have stood? That’s where you stand. Today at least.
Passover, Pentecost…Tabernacles? More about Tabernacles to come.