The Shift

Year after up year, since I was a young child, I have lived through this Sunday, Palm Sunday, and yet I am no closer to understanding it than I was as a child.

How could the same people who cheered for Jesus and waved palms as he rode into Jerusalem scream for his murder just a few days later? Was anyone thinking straight? How could they justify those words in their minds when they screamed, "Crucify Him!" How could they speak such hatred? How could they shout Hosanna one moment and Crucify the next?

Jesus went from being adored to being hated in a matter of days. And Jesus did not change. Jesus did nothing but speak the truth. He did nothing.

There is a shift that happened in the minds of Judas Iscariot and the Pharisees. A similar shift happened in the minds of the common people. All of these rational people were able to move mentally from tolerance to pure hatred. What caused this shift in their minds? What brought them to the brink of insanity, to the point of justifying the murder of an innocent man? And how can we resist such a shift in our own minds?

In the garden of Eden, when we lived in harmony with God, we felt no pain or fear or anger. But once we fell from God's grace and we faced death, fear and anger became necessary for our survival. They are part of our broken world. But, if we are not careful, fear can turn to desperation, anger to rage, competition to revenge. Emotions that can help us survive can shift in us until our actions are misdirected and evil. But how does this shift occur?

Judas was Jesus' friend. He was a disciple. He had followed Jesus for years. He had given up life as he knew it to follow Jesus. He loved Jesus. And yet, when Jesus failed to take up arms against Rome, something in Judas seemed to crack. His devotion turned to hatred, scorning his Master, he handed him over to the authorities. Did Judas know that Jesus would die? We do not know. But we do know that in a matter of about three days, a disciple turned into a traitor. And the only reason for his betrayal was his deep disappointment in his Master. So for Judas, the shift came when he felt betrayed himself, when he was disappointed and his disappointment turned to rage. There is a danger for all of us, when we feel hurt or betrayed, that we do not let these feelings justify vengeance.

The Pharisees had always been threatened by Jesus. They had always hated him. But they were religious men, men who had been taught to abhor violence, so they waited for the moment when someone else would do their dirty work. And why did they hate Jesus? Because he did things differently and he threatened their very way of life. Jesus told them that they were not as holy as they thought. And when a man is used to respect, he cannot stand the sting of a reprimand. The shift to murder happened for the Pharisees at the moment when they discovered that someone else would do it for them, at the moment when they discovered how Jesus could be killed without tarnishing their reputations. So we too must beware not to think too highly of ourselves.

As for the crowd, the best explanation that I have ever come across as to their shift comes from the great theologian Reinhold Neibuhr. In his book, Moral Man, Immoral Society, Neibuhr observes how people who are good individuals can get carried away in a crowd and stop thinking. Thus crowds are capable of much greater atrocities than the average person. The people who gathered and screamed, "Crucify!" were carried away in the exultation of a crowd. They were angry from being oppressed for so long. They needed someone to die to appease their anger. Someone needed to die. It was pure emotion that carried them forward, not reason. And yet, if you took each one of them individually alone to a private place and questioned them, I believe that they would not have called for Jesus' execution. The power of a mob is like a tidal wave and they all got carried away in its power. The shift happened because no one stopped to think. Not one single person stopped to think.

Thus the greatest injustice of all history was carried out because hundreds, perhaps even thousands of men and women shifted from adoration to violence. And we murdered the Son of God. We killed the best thing that ever happened to us.

So what can we do, today? What can we do to prevent this shift from happening inside our own minds? How can we stay aware and awake to injustice?

There are moments in all of our lives when emotions run high and injustice seems to have come upon us. It is in these crucial moments that we must stay awake, pause and pray. The greatest defense against the shift is awareness, time and prayer. Just stay awake, pause and pray.

Awaken to the complexity of this world. Black and white answers are often not the truth. Simple solutions often neglect part of the problem. Hear all the facts, look around you, give thanks for your life, and remember to breathe.

Pause because the God who moves mountains will often take decades to right a wrong. Because quick actions often involve less thought and lead to violence. Pause because it never hurts to take a moment to just be.

And pray. Not just with words, but try to listen to God. When people shift to sudden violence, it is often because they sense an urgency and feel that they must act now. Ask for God's guidance and ask yourself, why must I rush?

I pray that you and I may have the strength and courage to never make our decisions based on the rashness of emotion or the rage of a crowd. I pray that you and I will have the courage to stop, to ask questions, and to take time.

- The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead