I get nervous around crowds, not because crowds are threatening so much as I just never know how the crowd will decide issues in the heat of the moment. We hear about mass psychology and crowd mentality. One moment the crowd can love you and the next moment it can hate you.

One particular Sunday comes to mind. The crowd was breathless at the arrival of Jesus and turned a simple event into a parade. The crowd went nuts crying out things like, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord….Hosanna in the highest” (Mark 11:9-10). Five days later there was another crowd and a lot of the folks who were in the first crowd were in the second crowd, too. Only this time they weren’t worshiping the one of whom they had earlier said, “Blessed is He…” Nope! This time they were calling for His death shouting, “Crucify Him!”(Mark 15:13). Crowds make me nervous.

Palm Sunday is a reminder that Jesus deserves all the praise that people can offer but it is also a reminder that large groups can be an illusion. People can be swayed. People can be turned. They can praise and they can kill. This is a solemn reminder that what you see is not always what you get.

In the heat of the moment and in the pressure of the crowd is there a way for us to stay true to what our faith calls forth in us? Can we say “Yes” when everyone around us saying “No?” Can we say “No” when everyone around is saying “Yes?” Can we stand with Jesus regardless of peer pressure or mass psychology or the stress and strain than can come when we find ourselves alone in the crowd?

Can we just keep on saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” right on through Good Friday and into the glories of Easter morning?