Do not Love the Crowd

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sun, 20/03/2016 - 22:27

On Palm Sunday, when the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowd greeted Him with enthusiasm. They cheered and waved, placing a carpet of palms and clothes before Him. Within less than a week, they're screaming for His death, persuading a usually vindictive but presently merciful Roman governor to crucify Him.

Oliver Cromwell once remarked to John Lambert as the crowds cheered them that they'd cry out just as cheerfully if they were off to be hanged. There's something about a crowd. It's as though the mass of individuals that constitute its body lose their independence and think and act as one. Crowds, or rather mobs, become thoughtless and violent.

The phrase 'going along with crowd' suggests people merely ape their peers. That's what many were doing in Jesus' and Oliver's days. A hundred years ago, most people attended church, though how many were really saved and converted, one cannot know. Many simply followed the crowd. Real Christians are called to leave the crowd. The apostle John says that one cannot love the crowd and God (in a Bible search engine look up 'world' in place of 'crowd').

'Narrow is the way that leads to life, and only a few find it'. Christians will always be outsiders swimming against the flow. So don't go with the crowd, even when it's lauding and praising Jesus.