Read:
John 12:12-19 & 37-43
Have you ever
been swept away by the emotions of a crowd? If you've attended a major sporting
event, perhaps you have. Even if you weren't a fan when you entered the
stadium, by the time you left you were shouting and cheering like everyone
else. It happens at sporting events, concerts, protests, and political rallies.
It is called the "herd mentality," and it has the power to influence
us to do what everyone else is doing. But being in a crowd can also have the
opposite effect, keeping us from doing what we assume someone else has already
done. For example, a crowd of people stands around watching a man die of a
heart attack, each person thinking someone else has already called 911.
Sociologists call this the "crowd effect." Crowds have the power to
move us to action or immobilize us entirely. There is power in a crowd.
Understanding
this power leads me to an important question as it pertains to the Christian
practice of corporate worship. Do I believe what I believe because I actually
believe it, or because I have been swept up in the emotion of a particular
crowd? Am I worshipping what is true or simply what has been predetermined by
the crowd in which I find myself?
After leaving
the party given in His honor, Jesus received a hero's welcome in Jerusalem,
where He found a huge crowd waiting for Him. But why had this crowd gathered?
Did their presence mean they had finally accepted Jesus as the Messiah or did
they have other motives? No doubt, as in any crowd, there were all kinds of
people with various motives gathered there on that day. John reported that some
people were there because they "believed in him," (John 12:42) while
others only "loved the glory that comes from man" (John 12:43). We
would be wise to remember that those same motivations drive the crowds we find
in our churches today.
Here are at
least four things to consider about the “crowd” and its effect on you and your
faith:
First: What you believe and how you behave tends to reflect the
crowd to which you belong. This principle is why your mama always told you to choose your
friends carefully. But it's about more than those with whom you decide to hang
out. The family and culture into which you were born, the schools you attended,
and even the media you consume, all have an effect on you and what you believe.
No one is exempt from the impact of their culture and family.
Second: You will most
likely choose to belong to the crowd that best reflects what you’ve already
determined to believe. We are all on the lookout for evidence to support what we
believe. Beliefs are much easier to maintain in a community that shares those
beliefs. Our crowd becomes a filter for anything that doesn't fit what we've
already decided to be true. That filter can also be a blindfold, however. Bill
Bishop, in his book, The Big Sort,
says,
Like-minded … groups squelch
dissent, grow more extreme in their thinking, and ignore evidence that their
positions are wrong. As a result, we now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing
our own thoughts about what's right and wrong bounced back to us by the
television shows we watch, the newspapers and books we read, the blogs we visit
online, the sermons we hear, and the neighborhood we live in.[1]
But truth is
not subject to the determination of any crowd. Democracy is great, but a
majority VOTE doesn't determine truth. Something is either true or is not true,
regardless of who or how many people believe it. The claims of Christianity are
rooted in historical facts that are either true or not, despite what our
"crowd" happens to believe about those claims.
Third: Just because the crowd is growing does not mean truth is
flowing. Jesus
entered Jerusalem for Passover accompanied by a crowd of people who had
recently seen Lazarus raised from the dead. But He and His posse were entering
a city that may have swollen to over a million people preparing to celebrate
the Passover. There were certainly people in the crowd with misconceptions about
Jesus. Many people saw Him as a military savior who had come to overthrow their
Roman oppressors. This unmet expectation
may explain why, just a few days later when Jesus was on trial before Pilate,
that same crowd turned on Him. Many who had shouted, "Hosanna," would
soon be shouting, "Crucify Him!" In fact, it was only a small remnant
in the crowd on that first Palm Sunday who were actually worshipping Jesus.
Fourth: The emotion of the crowd cannot substitute for the
devotion of your heart. I love Christian concerts, conferences, and full worship
services, but they are no substitute for time alone with God. It is in our
solitude, away from the noise and influence of the crowd, where the actual
condition of our heart is revealed. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said,
"These people come near to me with their mouths and honor me with their
lips, but their hearts are far from me, their worship is based on merely human
rules they have been taught" (Isaiah 29:13).
As you take time alone with
God today, ask yourself these questions:
- Is
your worship based on your deeply held beliefs and convictions or simply
untested family or cultural tradition?
- If
everyone in your congregation were just like you, what would your next
corporate worship experience be like?
- Is
your heart near to God, or just your mouth?
Dear Jesus,
My fickle heart is easily
swayed. Given the crowd I'm with and the power of their influence over me, I
may praise You one day and deny You the next.
You, however, are unchanging, ever constant, and always true. Give me
faith based on Your Word and the courage to stand on that faith in the face of
any crowd.
Amen
[1] Bill
Bishop, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us
Apart (Boston: Mariner Books, 2009),
39.
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