Going with the flow and pleasing the crowd

Following this intro, is the weekly devotional I prepare for the men's biblestudy on Thursdays. I thought this was applicable, so here it is for general consumption.

- Paul


"You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice " (Exodus 23:2).

"But they all cried out together, "Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas!'" (Luke 3:18).

"So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified." (Mark 15:15).

Those are just 3 versus of many that deal with the pressures of pleasing people and placating the crowd. Proverbs packs several hard uppercut punches as well as you dig through all thirty one chapters. In fact if you start in Genesis and work your way through God's word you can't escape the lessons concerning not following the ways of the world. Unfortunately, mankind has always struggled with a need to please the crowd. As it relates to teens we refer to it as "peer pressure." Yet peer pressure can affect more than just teens. In the Law, God spoke through Moses and warned the people against following the crowd in doing wrong. There's a powerful incitement to side with the crowd and God calls this a perversion of justice.

As I have been thinking about Easter and the story or Christ's "trial" and crucifixion, it becomes very apparent that this was the ultimate expression of peer pressure or being a crowd pleaser. This is plainly visible down through the ages. A few weeks ago, while I was in L.A., I was looking at some small books in the Christian bookstore. I picked up and browsed one concerning the Apostolic Creed. I read on the back cover that this text was used by many of the reformed churches, and kids memorize it in Sunday school. This morning on the way to work I remembered one of the lines that I read and it states Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate." What a way to be known and be remembered by millions each week all around the world!

The public officials of Jesus' day were no different than many we have in front of us today during this election year. Pilate was a crowd pleaser and the quintessential politician. He had neither courage nor conviction. On this particular day the crowd had made their wishes well known. Notice the phrase in Mark 15:15, and see Pilate's motive in his decision making: "wishing to satisfy the crowd." The author Warren Wiersbe wrote this comment: "Pilate knew what was right, but refused to do anything about it. Judas yielded to the devil in his great sin; Peter yielded to the flesh when he denied his Lord; but Pilate yielded to the world and listened to the
crowd. Pilate looked for the easy way, not the right way." Pilate had the opportunity to do the right thing and a careful reading of the Gospel indicates he certainly knew what the right thing was. He was deeply troubled within and though his wife expressed a spiritual sensitivity and sensibility he refused to listen to her. When he faced the pressure of the crowd who
cried out "Crucify Him" Pilate's cowardly lack of convictions became his defining moment in history.

All of us have and will continue to face this pressure in so many situations in our daily lives. It doesn't matter if it is our family, our friends, our school, our work, or the church body you are leading, doing the right thing in spite of public opinion or pressure is never easy. We all deal with "the crowd" and have a natural compulsion to please with the intent of getting along with others. Standing up against the crowd can have severe consequences, of course pleasing the crowd can have severe consequences as well. Are there not some characteristics of Pilate in each of us? I pray that God would help us all to be courageous and to stand by our convictions today whether it pleases the crowd or not, regardless of the consequences.

Guess what... You just may be called to do that today!