Causing a Riot

As I continue reading in the book of Mark, the Word just keeps working on my heart. Convicting me, helping me recognize things I haven't really noticed before. It's amazing how you can read the same story over and over and over again and always find something new, but that's the way that our eternal God works. 

So as I keep reading, I come to the point where the religious elite are starting to talk seriously about how they need to stop Jesus. Arrest Him. Eliminate Him. Eliminate the threat to their power and status and whatever else they were hoping to protect. 

"But not during the Passover, or the people might riot." 

That's what they decided, just a few pages before they actually go and arrest Jesus during the Passover. And as far as we know, there wasn't a huge riot. In fact, even Peter abandoned the Lord in those dark hours. 

But they were afraid of a riot. Because how do you expect that you can just arrest the leader of a religious movement on their most holy day and the people will be okay with it? It's a well-founded fear. If you arrest Jesus during the Passover, the people might riot. 

The question that my convicted heart asks in response to this is: what if you arrest Jesus on any other day? 

Honestly. 

We saw this recently in our Covid-era restrictions. There was a greater outcry about churches being shut down around Easter and Christmas than any other Sunday, and the question that we have to ask ourselves is...why?

Is Jesus greater on our holy days? Is there something more special about these days than any other days? What does it say about our faith if we are more likely to riot on a holy day than on a regular one? 

Let's ask it another way - what is different in my relationship with Jesus at Christmas or Easter (or Passover) than on any other Sunday? What is different about it on a so-called "holy day" than on any other regular day of the year? 

Do I love Jesus enough that I would riot no matter when they arrested Him? Or are the Pharisees right, and they only have to worry about me on the Passover? 

And, as it turns out, do they even have to worry about me on the Passover? Because there's nothing in the story that told us there were even any small riots at all. The only scene that was being made was the one being made with torches and clubs on the Mount of Olives by the folks who were kind of afraid of a riot...and ended up making the ruckus. 

It's a good question to ask ourselves. The Pharisees only feared the people on the Passover. 

As followers of Jesus, when does the world fear us? 

Or do they even have to?