“Nothing attracts a crowd… like a crowd”
Black Gold, Soul Asylum
So much of the passion narrative centers around ‘the crowd’. Whether it is the Crowd outside of Lazarus’ house, the crowd on Palm Sunday or the crowds condemning Jesus to Pilate, they drive the narrative in a way that just doesn’t happen in the rest of the scriptures.
Yes, obviously there are crowds in Galilee and during the sermon on the mount and the feeding of the 5,000 - but those crowds follow Jesus, they seek him out.
By the time Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem, the crowd has become a mob. And mobs have minds of their own.
We have seen a little bit of that mob mentality here in Baltimore in the last week. A tragic accident on the Patapsco River resulted in the death of six construction workers toiling overnight, and the quick thinking and action of others saved the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands.
Locally we are mourning those who died, celebrating the work of those who came to the rescue, and figuring out how to move forward.
But the rest of the world wants to make this about something else. And when the mob decides on a narrative, it is hard to put it back in the bottle. Because, as 90’s icons Soul Asylum taught us, nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.
They also taught us another important lesson - “I’m want for somebody to shove, I need somebody to shove, I want somebody to shove me.” Look, I loved to dive into a mosh pit as a kid to this song. I loved to get inside and push and shove and feel alive. But it took me a while to realize that that desire for conflict, for contact, had larger consequences than torn shirt at the HFStival.
The crowd that led Jesus into Jerusalem wanted someone to shove. And when Jesus made it clear he was not there to lead a violent revolution, they turned on Jesus and found someone else to shove.
In the aftermath of the Key Bridge collapse, the crowds again want someone to shove. The ship. The inspectors. The first responders. The immigration status of the repair team. Anyone who could be at fault because it is hard for us to accept that sometimes bad things happen.
But friends, sometimes bad things happen. And when they do people of faith step into the breach. To pray. To love. To Feed. To share. Amidst all the violence of Good Friday and the Stations of the Cross, we sometimes forget about the small moments of relief granted to Jesus. The woman who wiped his face. Simon of Cyrene carrying the load. The women of Jerusalem. The words of the criminal on the cross. The visitation of his mother and the disciple whom he loved.