Page 74 - laten-08-06-2020

Mob at Court

Crying Crucify

Luke 23:21, Mark 15:13
Introduction

he words, activities, emotions and expressions of the mob
Tduring the Jesus’ movement are very much important for us
to understand the complexities of human behavior. Throughout
Jesus’ ministry mob played a vital role. They followed him, they
listened to his sayings, they were part of his miracles and they
were part of every aspect of his life. Mob possessed different
shades during different occasions of Jesus’ ministry. Perhaps
the mob that shouted hosanna and elevated Jesus as king now
mocked Jesus by saying Crucify him. Now let us try to understand
the dynamics of the text. The Greek term for ‘the mob’ is Ochlos
from there the term Ochlocracy came into existence. Ochlocracy
is a very problematic term which refers to mob’s rule/governance
and it is a threat to democracy. Here the Roman Empire was the
supreme authority and Jews were subjugated by the empire. To
run a smooth administration Roman authorities always tried
to invite Jewish Religious leaders for the suggestions but did
what they wanted to do. Here in this pericope Jesus was struck
in between Roman Empire and Jewish leaders, both of them
wanted to eliminate Jesus. Therefore, they used the mob as a
tool to fulfill their desire. Some of the major factors which the
mob got instigated are as follows.

Roman Empire Instigating Mob

Jesus was very careful in dealing with the Empire, his
teachings were not very much against the Empire, for example:
Matthew 22:21, “give therefore to emperor the things that
are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.” But
still because of the popularity, Empire believed that Jesus is

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Lenten Meditations Re - Imaging People