FOLLOW UP TO SESSION 10 - The Crowd

If you remember from our last session (before Easter), the readings and video pointed out to us that not only are the crowds "for" Jesus, they also "protect" him:

• Mark 11:8-10 - Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"
• Mark 11:18 - And when the chief priests and the scribes heard [of Jesus' demonstration in the Temple], they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.
• Mark 11:32 - Shall we say, "Of human origin'?"—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet.
• Mark 12:12 - When [the chief priests, scribes, and elders] realized that [Jesus] had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.
• Mark 12:37b - And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
• Mark 14:1-2 - It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, "Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people."

As the story goes, eventually, the chief priests and scribes capture Jesus because Judas betrays Jesus at night without the crowd being there: Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. . ." (Mark 14:48-49).

We often make the leap that the "crowd" that wants Jesus crucified in Mark 15 is the same crowd that has loved Jesus throughout the week. However, we forget that according to Mark 15:25, "It was 9 o'clock in the morning when they crucified Jesus." Then, in Luke 23:27, we read that "A great number of the people followed him [on the way to Golgotha], and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him." It seems that Jesus is on his way to be crucified before the crowd who loves him know what is happening.

Does it even matter that it is likely that these "crowds" are different? Why or why not?