Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday, April 13, 2014: Matthew 21:1-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66
How does a crowd turn from shouts of joy to cries of murder in such a short span?
At dusk on July 1, 1985, I was sitting among the small crowd of baseball fans at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, waiting for the start of a Phillies-Cubs matchup, when longtime Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt took the field wearing a long curly wig and sunglasses. A roar of laughter rose up from the crowd, in appreciation of Schmidt’s effort to transform the attitude of the fans, who had been battling with Schmidt all season.
Schmidt won the World Series pennant for the Phillies in 1980, but he lost it for them in 1983. By midseason in 1985, the animosity between the crowd and the ballplayer had been stoked by the crowd’s jeers—and by Schmidt’s interviews, in which he described fans with words like uncontrollable and mob scene. For a few minutes that night, the crowd roared with laughter in approval and appreciation and solidarity. But nine innings later, the mood had darkened. As the aging slugger struck out with two on and two out, the hollow stadium rang only with bitter boos. I confess that I booed along with the rest of the crowd.
How did we turn from laughing to heckling in just a few hours? How does a crowd turn from shouts of joy and welcome to cries of murder in the span of a few chapters of scripture, a few days in the life of Jesus, an hour-long worship service?
