Bullying

 Imagine being in Jerusalem on that Sunday.  Jesus was coming.  The excitement in the air was palpable. Somewhere in the crowd someone started singing and pretty soon an anthem was rising up from hundreds of people who were making their way into the city.  Then someone shouted that He was here and immediately everyone stopped moving and turned to see Him coming down the hill, sitting on a mule.  A man jumped out of the crowd and laid his coat over a deep rut which previous carts and chariots had made in the road.  Another man did the same.  Women started grabbing at branches of the trees which lined the road and before long there was a green carpet of palm leaves being laid in a carpet in front of Jesus.   Children were shouting His name and the singing and chanting got louder.  The crowd applauded as He went past and the disciples waved and smiled.   If I had been there I would definitely have been pushing my way to the front of the crowd to get a glimpse of Jesus.  

And yet a week later those very same people would be shouting for Jesus's blood.

And very probably I would have been too.

This week I have been thinking a bit about bullying.  I have never been a victim of it myself but I know people who have and they have some awful stories to tell.  What I have been wondering is what it is that makes someone turn on someone else and pick on them to the point of misery.  Given that Jesus was without sin, Im pretty sure He will have been bullied as a child.  Because kids always pick out difference don't they?  There is a pack mentality which descends on a group of people if someone perceived as ' different' or an outsider is present.   I remember being in the 6th form at school and witnessing some horrendous bullying taking place among the boys in the upper 6th.  It was both emotional and physical but it all took place under a thin veil of ' humour'.  The victim, who wasnt one of the sporty, rugby playing 'lads',  dealt with the abuse by trying to laugh it off and at the time it never occurred to me, an onlooker, that it was anything other than mildly amusing.  Looking back on it now I can see it for what it was - humiliating and awful. 

The crowd which assembled in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and sang the praises of Jesus, turned into a pack by the end of the week and decided they wanted to see a crucifixion.  It is scary how easily people can be drawn into that sort of behaviour by those around them.

These days ' those around us'  can include those we allow into our living rooms on TV screens, those who comment on our posts on social media as well as our real and actual friends in real life.  Last night I was watching a comedy show on the telly - one of those panel game type things which likes to poke fun at politicians and people in the public eye.  I say ' poke fun'  but actually......    what is said for comic effect in front of a studio audience is actually a comment on the real life of a real person who has feelings and who matters.  It is easy to excuse it as 'funny' - just as the 6th form tormentors did.  It isnt funny is it?  It is mean.  And what is mean on Monday, by Friday can become murderous. 

The closer we get to the end of the age the more we are going to be surrounded by voices shouting ' crucify'.   Crucify our politicians,  crucify our sporting heroes,  crucify anyone who fails or messes up, crucify anyone who disagrees with us.   We must not listen to the cries of the many.   We must not join our voices with theirs.  We need to be super super careful how we speak and what we say. We do not want to have blood on our hands.