Jesus Faces the Crowd

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
John 19:6-7

Talk about an angry mob.

Talk about mob mentality.

One week earlier, Jesus rode into town on a donkey, to the shouts and cheers of the mob, who laid palm branches before Him, crying out, "Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Blessed is the king of Israel!”  These words were part of Psalm 118, a song of David, with which the Jews would have been very familiar.  They knew what it meant.  They knew these words were reserved for the Messiah.

The also knew the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9: 

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
   Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
   righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
   on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  

They had to have felt like this was a moment of destiny.  A moment waited upon, for thousands of years.

How quickly public opinion changes.  And now Jesus Christ, who had been worshiped days before, was being ridiculed. 

This was also prophecy.  Look at Isaiah 53:3:

He was despised and rejected by mankind,
   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

What was He thinking,  as He looked out over these people?  He knew that in minutes His current suffering was going to be multiplied, to the point of death.

What was He thinking?

I wonder if He was thinking: 

"There's Josiah.  I love him.  He cheats on his taxes, and in a little while, I'm going to feel what that's like."

"That is Benjamin.  He rapes his wife, night after night.  But, I love him, and soon, I'm going to feel his sin."


One after the other, I can imagine Him looking into the eyes of each man there.  Knowing them fully.  Knowing their sin.  Loving them anyway.


I think Jesus' suffering on the cross was not just physical.  I think it was spiritual, too.  I think in those hours He spent, bearing our sin, He also bore the shame of our sin.  I think He felt just how degraded, how rotten, how horrible sin's effects are.


As that crowd shouted, "Crucify," He knew.  As He stood, condemned by mere mortal men, He knew.  As He looked into their eyes, those who were claiming the rights of the law, He knew. 

He knew that He was the fulfillment of the law.  He knew that He was going to make the ultimate sacrifice. 

He knew.

He did it anyway.