“Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pileate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed over to be crucified.” (Mark 15:15 NIV)
This scripture makes it clear; Pilate acted out of his desire to people please. I read today’s text and alarm bells go off in my soul. I have long struggled and am now a recovering people pleaser; partly because of my ‘2′ enneagram categorization (empathizing, peace-seeking, valuing of others), partly due to my middle child status (ever-pining for attention/affection) and largely because guilt and shame were the currency of my childhood home.
We see the wrong motivation starkly in Pilate’s decision to release the convicted felon and flog the innocent. I wish for this level of clarity in my own narrative. So often it’s hard to see straight under the pressure of outside opinions. The more we cave to the outcry of the crowd, the less we heed the Spirit. He is, so often, a still small voice; hard to hear in the tangle of opinion and demand. Pilate would have done better to step aside for a moment to gain perspective. He could have taken a walk in his private gardens or got alone in his chambers to fully consider the peaceful man’s fate. Instead, he tried to satisfy the crowd and lived out his days with the messiah’s blood on his hands. Even Pilate could not decree his way out of his participation in Jesus’ demise.
This morning several things are clear about crowd-pleasing.
First, the crowd is fickle. They demand one thing and then insist upon another. Only five days prior, the same crowd was showering Jesus with praises. What had happened to change their minds? The passage of time. External influence. Perhaps a bit of extortion.
Second, the crowd is often wrong. On this day in history, Pilate and the people exonerated a rebellious murderer and clamored for the death of an innocent preacher. To cave to a crowd is often times a moral failure, because the crowd is rarely righteous.
And lastly, the crowd is never satisfied. Think of the Roman circuses: games and bloodshed only whet the appetite for more violence. The crowd’s thirst for malevolent entertainment was never satisfied. Consider Jesus’ trial and sentence; flogging wasn’t enough. One lash short of the death sentence wouldn’t do, they needed Him crucified. An innocent man, stretched naked on a cross, dying for the sins of the world. And still today, for so many, that’s not enough.
I’m newly convicted this morning, realizing the terrible potential hidden in my people-pleasing tendencies. If we aren’t careful, the opinions of others can become a god before us, an idol we bow and scrape before: fickle, wrong and never satisfied.
“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10 NIV)
Apostle Paul appears to be a recovering people pleaser. This makes a load of sense when we consider his pre-conversion character: Jewish, Greek and Roman education, highly intellectual, small in stature yet ‘a pharisee of pharisees‘ (Acts 23:6), proud persecutor of Christians, certainly egged on by – you guessed it – a crowd. (Acts 22:20)
Paul realized he could not could not serve two gods: Christ and the crowd. He could not move forward in his ministry without first disposing of his idol. People pleasing would keep him from Christ-pleasing. He decided to follow Jesus with his whole heart. It even seems he hid himself away in Arabia for three years to figure it out before he put it into public practice. He had a holy time-out where he learned to hear God’s voice above all others: above tradition, popular opinion, accolades and personal desire. He finally learned to live for God alone and then he encouraged others to that end.
“Brothers and sisters, we instructed you on how to live in order to please God, as in fact, you are living. Now we ask you and urger you in the Lord to do this more and more.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1 NIV)
Lord, we need Your divine intervention when it comes to our people pleasing. Deep down we all want to be liked. Free us from this need. Help us to see it as idolatry. The crowd is fickle, often wrong and never satisfied. Your love for us is the antithesis: steadfast, righteous and wholly satisfying. We cannot serve two gods. Today we choose You. Help us turn dow the din of the opinions of others so we can fully focus on pleasing You. Amen.