Scripture
22Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 23“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” 24Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!” 25And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!” 26So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. Matthew 27:22-26
Observation
How in the world the same crowd who shouted “Hosanna” to Jesus now shout “Crucify Him”? How could the same crowd who saw Jesus perform miracles, who were fed by loaves and fish when hungry, now choose a murderer over a life giver? When Pilate passively tried to placate the crowd the original Greek sees them yelling, “His blood be on us and on our children.” The amazing thing is that because of what Jesus did on The Cross he turned this generational curse into an opportunity for generational blessing. For all in that crowd would later repent and believe His blood would be upon them. We don’t know what the percentages are, but history shows that the crowd will continue to yawn like Pilate, or yell like the crowd, and a there will always be a desperate few who yield to the way of salvation Jesus provided and modeled.
Application
I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ll bet that you yawned when you read the title of this journal entry and saw the yawning picture. I know I did. Maybe, even now, you are holding back a yawn. There’s a good chance that if you’re sitting in a coffee shop you will see others yawning around after you do. Social psychologists term this an example of a social contagion: “behaviors, both good and bad, spread through networks of friends, family, and acquaintances in a very analogous way to a virus.” We saw a million examples of this during our fight with an actual virus over the past two years. Social behaviors of masking and distancing became the norm so much so that even when it became clear this did very little to protect us from the COVID virus we kept doing it. What was abnormal had become normative because everyone was doing it. There's nothing wrong with wearing masks of course, but our social contagion tendencies often lead towards more destructive habits. John Mark Comer points out in his book “Live No Lies” that this “monkey see, monkey do” mentality is literally hardwired into our brains: “Buffalo all walk on the same of side of the field; teenagers all wear the same sneakers. People in coastal cities tend to vote Left; People in the heartland, Right. We’re created by our relational God to live in community, but under the fall, we devolve back into pack animals. This is often how the devil’s deceptive ideas keep such a strong hold on societies for so long. “I want it” and “everybody’s doing it” have overwhelming power by themselves; put together, they are well-nigh irresistible… If you make it a trend, you make it true.” This is how a crowd of reasonable human beings can shout to crucify a Savior, fight for a right to kill unborn babies, work to pervert the unique qualities inherent in the male and female gender, and so much more. How do we break the cycle? How do we step out from the crowd running headlong toward the moral cliff? We stop yawning passively like Pilate in our positions of influence. We stop yelling with the crowd, both left and right. We start yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit that will lead us to lay our lives down and to love our enemies even when it feels like we are the only ones doing so.
Prayer
I repent for the yawns: The places where my heart has been so overwhelmed by the rapid moral slide in our country that I’ve simply grown indifferent and I’ve stopped making a difference. I repent for the yelling: The place where I’ve allowed anger at the perversion of all I hold true to have a foothold in my life and cause me to feel hate towards the ones You’ve called me to love. I yield, not to mob mentality, but to the moving of Your Holy Spirit right now. Soften my heart. Show me what you are doing. I slow down. I step out from the crowd. I turn off the news feed and I feed my soul on Your Word that is my true north in these confusing times You’ve called me to lead in.
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