Fresh Look at Matthew: Matthew 27, Overview 5

Why the hatred?  The people calling for Jesus’ execution were so set on it.  What had he done to the masses?  Were these people who had heard of him but didn’t get the benefits, the bread miracle, the healings?  Or had some of them but couldn’t or wouldn’t follow?  Did they really believe he was a heretic and blasphemer?  Were they afraid of something, or being ostracized from the community? 

Were they being paid off?  (the temple made a fortune from the sacrificial system and money changing, so there was plenty.  Thirty pieces of silver was nothing to them, and that was our equivalent of—well, it’s hard to say. An Internet search gives it at any thing from $60 to $12,000.  It was a good bit for them, either way.  If they paid everyone in the crowd a couple of days’ wages, it would have been worth it for them.  We don’t even know if the crowd was all Jewish!

Were they then just rabble rousers, unemployed, with nothing else to do?  Were they from Jerusalem or from elsewhere?  I think there is a point in the fact we don’t know anything about this.  The “mob,” “the crowd” is faceless.  It becomes its own identity and the individuals use it to deny or avoid responsibility for their actions. 

We have an even more pernicious mob today.  It’s called the Internet and social media.  Anyone, literally anyone, can get on the Internet and say anything, literally anything, without repercussions.  They can hide behind anonymity, they can lie, they can be vile, they can accuse without evidence, blaspheme, destroy.  No responsibility. 

Case in point:  One of my least favorite persons in the media, Lena Dunham, was given real estate and air time on “news media” because she tweeted that she heard two airline employees talking badly about transgendered people.  The airline responded in a “oh, we will find these people and punish them” mode, which was stupid of them.  They were trying to do damage control when there really was no damage proven.  Dunham could have been making it up; it was a private conversation she was eavesdropping on; it was none of her business to try to shame the airline or its employees.  She wanted to look like a SJW; most people don’t care. 

But, on the flip side, the comments section of the article on Yahoo were even more vile.  I do not understand Dunham’s fame or popularity (NPR loves her, which tells you something), but I’m not going to use bad language against her.  To me she is a symbol of celebrity in this age, and that having a smart phone and knowing how to use the right hashtags gives you rights you don’t have. I feel sorry for her feeling she has to be noticed all the time. 

My point here (and any time you have to say “My point is” means you probably haven’t done a good job on your argument) is that the mob before Pilate is still with us, and our holy responsibility is to stand apart from it.  Sometimes all we can do is stand back and watch; other times we can perhaps make a difference, but the psychology of the mob, as history shows (another logical fallacy), is its own force that has only apparent numbers and violence as its argument.  This is why conformity is such a trap. 

Finally, why the hatred at Jesus specifically?  Well, it did fulfill Scripture, as Matthew constantly reminds us.  Jesus did not bend or conform; here he let the mob do as it willed, or was willed upon.  God does let us do what we will.  We can’t have free will and no evil in the world.  Those two propositions are incompatible.  If we have free will, people will sin and do evil, probably more than good.