“Afraid of the crowds”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Mark 11:27-12:12 (Forward, p. 24) CEV p. 1043
It is very odd. I have read over this passage on numerous occasions but have never noticed one particular detail. Twice it tells us that the Jewish authorities were ‘afraid of the crowds.’ On the first occasion, this fear prevented them from stating what they really thought. Jesus had asked them where they thought that John the Baptist’s authority had come from, from God or from some human source. They would have said ‘some merely human’, but out of deference or fear of the crowd, they deferred answering. They knew that the crowd considered John to be a prophet sent by God. (And, in this case, the crowd was absolutely right.)
And, why did they refuse to say ‘God’? It was because they would have immediately been put ‘on the spot’. Jesus would then have asked them why they didn’t believe him—and obey him.
Sad to say, but I happen to believe that this sort of thing happens all the time during our present age. Like the authorities back then, many people are afraid to say what they think or believe—out of fear of ‘the crowd’, out of thinking that would we think or believe is not politically correct or approved or sanctioned by social media etc. We are intimidated because what we think or believe is ‘out of step’ with what the generally accepted or prevailing consensus or belief happens to be at this present hour. And our authorities are often none the better: they don’t say what they truly think or believe for fear of alienating the public and not getting re-elected. And so, fear of the crowds is sometimes not the best thing, not at all.
But then there is our second instance of this in today’s passage, our second mention. In this case, the authorities want to arrest Jesus but were afraid of the crowds. And, why was this? It was because once again, Jesus had shown them up. He had related to them a very pointed parable, the Parable of the Renters in the Vineyard, and they’d known right away that it was ‘all about them.’ They had been the derelict renters, the ones who’d failed miserably in their duty—and worse! Anyway, in this case, perhaps a fear of the crowds was a good thing—maybe.
But maybe a better thing than either scenario is not to be worried about the crowds at all, not to be overly concerned about what they think, but simply
to be concerned about what God thinks. In the Scriptures we are told that a ‘fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. Indeed, a proper fear (or reverence) for God and a desire to do and say as He wills is continually lifted up as the way to go. So, maybe that should be our ‘bottom line’, our guiding principle, namely, to always do and say what God wants and then let ‘the chips fall where they may.’ It may be risky, but I think that this very thing is what God wants us to do.
Forward notes: “Have you not read this scripture, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’” (chapter 12, verse 10).
“In the early years of my ministry, my family and I lived in Alton, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Next to our house lived an artist, Arthur Towata. A Japanese American, Art was sent as a child to an internment camp during World War II. He later became an artist, a potter. Behind his house stood his kiln, where he fired his pottery pieces. One day, as I wandered through the woods behind our houses and saw broken shards of beautiful pottery pieces Art had thrown away, I thought, ‘How wasteful.’ Then I went to his studio and saw the pieces he kept! I wondered how often Art had languished in the internment camp, wondering if he would ever make the art in his soul. And I realized that ‘waste’ is not always waste.
“I now understand the acclamation from Psalm 118 that the rejected one can become the cornerstone of new creation. It is not always the first effort, the first piece, the first stone, or the first vase or bowl that wins the day. Trust God to turn waste into glory.”
Moving Forward: “What broken pieces is God using in your life?