Seat belts on……

I’m once again reading through the accounts of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion and even though it’s a story I have read, heard, and preached on many times, I still find myself shaking my head in disbelief at how crazy it all was. Of course I know that this was how it needed to be and that there was a bigger plan involved, but the way that Jesus’ accusers deal with His existence, especially given that they were only properly aware of Him for 3 years at the most, is so unbelievable to me.

However, it is very helpful in understanding how persecution can happen to any of us today. I’ve tried to break down the different stages of how Jesus life and death came about from the perspective of the religious leaders, Pharisees etc.

Stage 1 – Hope – Those who became Jesus’ enemies were waiting and hoping for a Messiah, a Saviour. They knew their Torah and the writings of the prophets; they were aware that there would be One coming who would save them, liberate them, and re-establish them as Gods people once again. They had hope. I know hope sounds like a strange place to start but I think that most situations which end in such a messy way begin in hope. If we were indifferent or apathetic towards a certain situation or move of God I don’t think we would really care what happened to it. Instead we often have our hope and personal expectations about how things will work out. The difficulty begins when the thing that we so desire doesn’t quite look how we thought it would.

Stage 2 – Disappointment – And so when our hopes are dashed we turn to disappointment. There was no doubt that there were aspects of Jesus that made the religious leaders believe that He ‘could’ be the Messiah. They couldn’t not notice the works that He did, they could see His understanding and His teaching were excellent, and that the people loved Him, however there were many other aspects of Jesus that didn’t fit their Messiah box. Jesus spent too much time with ‘unclean’ people; women, even women with poor reputations, tax collectors, zealots, uneducated men, even gentiles. His teachings went against their teachings and He even spoke directly against the Pharisees and religious leaders. He came from a backwater town, His parentage was questionable, and His seeming disregard for Sabbath living Him seemed far away from what a Messiah would do. All this left the religious leaders facing the reality that Messiah was not here. They had heard of other false Messiahs who had come before and Jesus had become another one in their eyes. The disappointment stage often goes the same for us today. Whether it’s a decision a church leader makes, a manifestation that we can’t wrap our heads around, or a rejection of our gifting and wisdom, we can disappointed when what we thought was a God break through appears to not be what we thought. We begin to question the person or churches validity and feel sad it wasn’t what we hoped. If we don’t sort ourselves out in that moment we move on to the next stage.

Stage 3 – Anger – I should have said it in the last section but there’s nothing particularly wrong with being disappointed. However what we do with that disappointment has huge consequences. Too often in our lives, and very clearly in the story of Jesus, our disappointment turns into something uglier. Anger. Again, anger isn’t necessarily wrong, there is such a thing as righteous anger, but again, what we do with that anger is vital. You see anger has the ability to lead us down a blinkered path of destruction both internally and externally. We see happening in Jesus journey to death. Because Jesus simply won’t conform to the expectation of who the leaders believed Messiah to be, their anger begins to spin out of control. They try to trap Him in His teaching, they stir up crowds against Him and even try to stone Him. I truly believe they thought their anger was righteous but even an anger that starts righteously can lead us to an unholy place. We see it today with people protesting against certain people groups or practises that aren’t consistent with scripture. Their sadness or righteous anger against these things are valid but to step out and abuse those people is not what God calls of us. The reason doesn’t justify the response. This is the part when things start to go very wrong but unfortunately it gets even worse from here.

Stage 4 – Reality stretching – when anger sets in we see that it often bends and distorts truth. On a really simple level watch the fan of a sports team when they receive a bad call on a scoring opportunity. Even if the call was wrong what often happens is the person descends into a red mist of anger where they can’t recognise ‘anything’ as being right. Every decision the referee makes from that point is wrong, even when a rational mind would see that some of them were correct. They begin to see reality differently and their truth begins to stretch. I have insight here because I have been that fan!!!! We see this with the Pharisees accusations against Jesus. They begin to claim He said things He never did, they try to tell Rome that He is planning a revolt like the ones they had seen before. They believe that He is the devil incarnate, a sorcerer or magician. They stop even seeing that the miracles that were happening were real and of God. Their reality is skewed but it feels true to them. When it feels true it is difficult to shift. Sadly, the same can happen with our anger in other issues. Because we are so angry about what has happened we simply don’t see anything clearly in any situation that occurs and we begin to live out, I’m trying to find a better word than ‘a lie’ but I’m not sure I can find one.

Stage 5 – Misled connections and gossip – once we begin to live in a distorted reality our conversations and connections morph. People who weren’t friends become allies if they share our reality, people who no longer share our views are cast out – just read about how Pilate and Herod became friends during Jesus’ trial, or how the Jewish leaders colluded with Rome. Our times together with these people can become gossip sessions where we simply discuss them, their motivations, and share half baked stories of what they are up to. The problem is because we are living in the distorted reality we believe them all as truth.

Stage 6 – Descending behaviours – when we decide to believe the half stories of the one or ones we are against then it ‘stands to reason’ that we can act however we want against them. The ends justify the means right? This is the sad thinking that leads us to this stage. We start to justify certain behaviours that we would have never entertained previously. In the gospels we read about the Jewish leaders stirring up the crowd to spread stories about Jesus, believing that using the Romans to murder Him was justified, they even call Caesar their king when Pilate addresses them during Jesus’ trial, and advocate for the the release of a true murderer and insurrectionist. I’m pretty sure if you had asked any of them 3 years earlier whether they would have done any of these things they would have laughed at you. These are descending behaviours that began much earlier in their hearts. It seems unbelievable but it so subtly creeps in. Unfortunately I’ve seen these descending behaviours within those who follow Jesus today. I’ve seen people protesting with horrendous messages outside of hospitals, parades, and even other churches. I’ve seen vile messages on social media from brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ve even seen physical threats being issued in places I would have never imagined that it would occur. Each of them feels those behaviours are ok because of the wrong they have suffered. Whilst some of them have experienced real wrong it can never be a reason to heap wrong on someone else. Once we get to this part we are one step on from the final stage;

Stage 7 – Mob rule – at this point it feels like there is no return. Our anger and behaviours have descended so far and wide that even those who have no idea what is happening are simply swept up in the hysteria. The half truths are passed on to the next group as full truths and they are added to again. Control and manipulation, both mild and strong, are used to bring others along to help us find validity in our opinions. People who weren’t even annoyed in the beginning become angrier than those who went before them. The mob gains power. Again, look at what happened in Jesus’ crucifixion. By the end of His trial the whole crowd have been stirred in calling for His crucifixion to the point that the Romans are left with no choice or else a riot would break out. Few of them had even met Him. Jesus is flogged, raised up and put to death.

The Pharisees appear to have ‘succeeded’ but at what cost to their souls? What did they miss on the eternal story? Mob rule has cost them experiencing the Kingdom.

I know this isn’t a particularly cheery post, well done if you’ve made it this far, but I hope it is helpful for each of us to identify where we have wandered down this route. I know I’ve made it further down it than I’d want to admit. I also hope this post can help us to see why we might have been on the wrong side of this flow from others we love. I hope it helps us understand why people who used to walk with us seem to want to throw stones at us. I hope it helps us develop mercy and forgiveness for those against us as well as birthing wisdom and discernment for when we are against others.

No one wants to be in a mob rule situation. We don’t choose it directly but the hundreds of small choices we make in each stage can lead us to this destination. I don’t want that and I’m guessing you don’t either.

Thank you Lord that through you there is a way to freedom even when we are pressed and pushed against. Help us not fall into deceit when we feel let down. Fix our eyes on you.