I saw a movie once that was set in 1930s Italy. At the end, a young Italian boy is told by his mother to throw stones at his favorite teacher as the old man is carted off by the Fascists for speaking out against them. She told him to do this, not out of hatred, but to protect her son. The film ends with a camera shot of the boy throwing rocks, shouting "you dirty communist!" his face contorted in anger. Was he just acting, like we were just now, or had he truly joined the mind of the mob?

It is amazing to see how such a diverse crowd becomes of one mind in the rush to execute Jesus. In that crowd were Pharisees and Saducees, Jesus’ enemies, to be sure, but there were also Zealots and tax collectors and Roman soldiers and women and children, perhaps some whom Jesus had healed, perhaps even people like you and me, his disciples. That such a mob should have the same mind is utterly incomprehensible. Yet it seems to happen all the time, whenever a scapegoat is close at hand.

The crowd also seemed to have the same mind when it shouted "Hosanna to the Son of David!" at the triumphal entry. Surely there were some who shouted "Hosanna" who also shouted "Crucify." In both cases, these individuals would have become of one mind with the crowd, but why "Hosanna" now and "Crucify" later? What happened?

I have come to believe that the "Hosanna" is no more or less heartfelt than the "Crucify," and that this is because the crowd is of the same mind, a mind full of itself, focused not on Jesus but on themselves. They aren’t interested in emptying themselves in God’s service, but in filling themselves at God’s expense. To paraphrase JFK, they have not heeded the precept "Ask not what Jesus can do for you, but what you can do for Jesus." They are of one mind, but it is not the mind of Christ.

"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who…emptied himself…and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross." Paul exhorts us to have the same mind, the same attitude, as Christ had, an attitude of humility that was not full of himself but "emptied." But how are we to have this marvelous mind of Christ? I think the key may be in the way we look at Jesus, in what we expect from Jesus. Are we looking for a tailor-made saviour, one we can control, or are we open to being transformed by a saviour who is beyond anything we can ask or imagine?

The crowd is of the same mind both in the "Hosanna" and in the "Crucify." But we are different, right? Our "Hosannas" could never turn into "Crucifies," could they? Could they? Just entertaining this question scares me. Unfortunately, I have the sinking feeling that as long as we focus on what Jesus can do for us instead of on what we can do for Jesus, we will become disenchanted with the Jesus whom we can’t control, and then our praising will turn to cursing.

But if we can attain to the same mind, not of the mob, but the mind of Christ, emptying ourselves with Christ and carrying his cross just as Simon Cyrene did, then maybe there’s a chance for us. And maybe then when "every knee" will "bend…and every tongue…confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," it will be not with the mind of a mob, but with the mind of Christ.