When the Ministerial Alliance was picking Lenten topics, one of the ones that was mentioned was "The Mob". And I have always loved "gangster stories" - You know Al Capone; Lucky Luciano; Bonnie & Clyde; Baby Face Nelson; The God Father. I am still amazed at what it reads on Bonnie Parker’s tombstone, put there by her mother, "As the flowers are all made sweeter, by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter, by the likes of folks like you."
(interruption from someone in the audience) - Scott, your topic isn’t "mobsters"
2. O’ sorry. Well you know when I was an MP (Military Policeman), I was once assigned to Security duties as Seneca Army Depot that was being protested by a mob of women who were for Nuclear disarrmament. I think it was Labor Day in 1983, and we arrested some 500 protestors that scaled over the fence. After climbing over the fence they then sat down and went lymph as we handcuffed and hauled them to nearby buses for processing. All the while they were singing "We’re not violent people, we just came for peace".
(interruption) - Scott, your topic isn’t rioters, but the Mob.
3. Oops! Have you ever seen one of those Brittish Soccer games? You know the ones where the fans go wild. They push on the fence and people get crushed. Sometimes when they are really unhappy they even run on the field and beat up their own goalie or one of the other players.
(interruption) - Scott (shake your head no)
4. Not it? Well don’t you hate the crowds in the stores at Christmas time? All the hustle and bustle, but what you get is jostle and tossle! Its bah-hum-bug rather than Marry Christmas! Every store is jammed packed with crowds. This last Christmas my brother waited in line with his toddler daughter for almost two hours surrounded by mobs of impatient people, all for her to see Sanata at the mall, and look what he got.
(interruption) - Scott, that is an interesting story but I don’t think it is your subject for today!
5. Well! I did attend Kent State University, ten years after the deadly protest that left 4 dead in Ohio...
(interruption) - Scott!
6. Did you know there is a place called "Mob.Com"
(interuption) - No!
7. You do know about the Rice University Marching Owl Band (or M.O.B.)?
(interuption) - Still not it!
8. The punk rock group "The Mob?"
9. A play in in four Acts by John Galsworthy?
10. Frank Sinatra’s ties to the Mob?
No still not?
11. Well what about the recent discussion about the movie Passion being released today? Did you hear all the discussion about how the Jews are being depicted? People are fearing reprisals and though I haven’t seen the movie, with all the discussion about violence there is bound to be a scene with a mob of Jews in Jerusalem. First crying for the release of Barabbas - "Barabbas, Barabbas, give us Barabbas" and then when Pilate asked them what they should do with Jesus, they shout "Crucify, crucify, crucify Him!". Man if that isn’t a mob, I don’t know what is? And how can you depict that any less violent, or any less a portrayl of the role that those Jews present played in Jesus Crucifixion?
In fact the Scripture records Pilate as saying "I am innocent of this mans blood, the responsibility is yours". And the MOB shouts back "We will take responsibility for his death - we and out children!" (NLT) or (NKJV) "His blood be upon us and our children."
The angry riotous mob cried for the very blood of Jesus to be upon them and their children and now with a movie release of the story another angry mob, generations later crying "Don’t blame us for His death!". Which is to say that Mob mentality never thinks its actions are wrong. Fans riot after their team wins the big game, they overturn cars, and burn homes, and loot stores down Main Street and they call it "Celebration". And so too it would be easy for the mob to deny their responsibility in the death of Jesus. But the reality is that his blood is upon us; not just the Jews, but upon our hands as well, because if we get right down to it, we are the mob.
The mob of sinners... the mob of riotous sin that sent Christ to the Cross to pay the penalty. The spotless lamb that took away the sin of the world. The scapegoat that carried off the crowds sin into the dessert. And so for all the mob, the masses who believe, His blood is upon us... In fact it is covering up our sin so that when God looks at us, He sees it no more.
You know what, the more I think of it, the Mob didn’t send Christ to the crosss... BUT love did! God loves you so much. He loves the Jews so much. Maybe thats why they call it the "Passion", because even when the disobediant and unruly mob cries "crucify" from our sins, God’s passion is so great, it cries out to the mob "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
He says to the mob, to the masses, "You are forgiven"... "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
