Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 15 verses 12 through 15:
12Pilate spoke to them again, ‘Then what do you wish me to do* with the man you call the King of the Jews?’ 13They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ 14Pilate asked them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ 15So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
The book of Mark uses the word "crowd" thirty-six times, almost always in suspicion.
In Mark, when Jesus is followed by the crowds he immediately tells the parable of the seed, most of which falls away.
Mark did not believe in crowds. He learned from Jesus not to put his trust in crowds.
Pilate on the other hand was a politician. He needed the crowd to tell him who he was. He needed the crowd stay in power. And, fact of the matter was, so far from home he needed the control of the crowd to stay alive.
How about you? What is your relationship to the crowd?
How much of yourself is in the crowd? Does it tell you who you are? Does it tell your leaders who they are?
In the end, all the crowds deserted Jesus. Pilate, however, had the public's approval -- at least for a day.
But crowds are fickle, and red meat thrown to the lions doesn't last long.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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