There is a very perceptive comment in the first Men in Black film.

Edwards (the junior agent) says; “Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.” To which Kay (the senior agent) replies; “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals and you know it.”

Kay makes a valid point. Human beings frequently behave differently alone compared to being in a group. Individually, a person is ‘smart,’ able to consider issues carefully, weighing opportunities and challenges wisely. In a group, he or she ‘follows the group,’ leaving aside common sense, sanity, integrity, honesty, etc.

I find it interesting that, in the Bible, there are incidents where groups of people behave in particular ways. Also, their recollection of certain events is distorted. We are wise to be cautious, and not always take what is said at face value.

In Exodus 16.3, the Israelites, having just left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, complain at the apparent lack of food. They recalled (!) that, in Egypt, “we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.” This seems unlikely in the extreme. They were slaves and had been slaves for perhaps 100 years (my estimate). They had cried out for years at their desperate suffering. They certainly had not sat around pots of meat.

A little later, in Numbers 11.5, they remembered “the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” Bizarre. These are foods that give flavour; they did not sustain. Again, it seems scarcely believable that slaves should enjoy such fare! Surely this is a case of unreliable collective memory.

Centuries later, Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was challenged by Jeroboam. Jeroboam argued that Solomon had made the people’s “yoke hard,” and urged Rehoboam to lighten their load.

Was this true? I think not!

Following the reign of King David, Israel had become the dominant nation in the Middle East. Solomon’s reign was largely one of peace, devoid of rebellion. His agents traded profitably with surrounding nations, adding to the wealth secured by David’s military campaigns. The description of Solomon’s wealth is extraordinary. The Queen of Sheba arrived and testified that Solomon’s wealth exceeded the glowing reports she had heard (1 Kings 10). The writer adds that Judah and Israel “lived in safety, every man under his vine and his figtree,“ during the reign of Solomon (1 Kings 4.25). This is a significant statement, prefiguring the glorious future of Israel (see Micah 4.4). This utopian existence was certainly not a heavy yoke of taxation which Jeroboam suggested.

It seems the oratory of Jeroboam, coupled with Rehoboam’s weak leadership, swayed the collective memory of the nation, leading to the rebellion against Rehoboam.

In the New Testament, the Ephesian people, stirred to ecstasy cry out for two hours “Great is Diana Artemis)” (Acts 19.34). The thought of reasonable debate was quickly forgotten.

No, people are not smart!

You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. (Hebrews 1.9)

There are three phrases which deal with passion.

1. You have loved righteousness;
2. You have hated iniquity;
3. God has anointed you with the oil of joy.

Although Christ came to be our Lord and our Saviour, He also came to be our perfect example; the man worthy of following. ‘Disciples’ learn to be like their Master.

1. The apostle John declares that ‘God is light,’ meaning that God is perfectly holy and righteous. Jesus Christ perfectly manifested this righteousness in His earthly life. Compassion and patience, love and mercy, giving attention to the poor and needy, to women and children, so often marginalised in the culture of the day. We, His followers, are called to manifest those same qualities in our day-to-day lives.
2. I wonder what specific incident(s) from the life of Christ were in the writer’s mind when he wrote that Christ ‘hated wickedness.’ Among His strongest words were the rebukes to those who bought and sold in and around the temple, first in John 2; in a later incident, recorded in the other three gospels, Christ announced that the temple had been made a ‘den of thieves.’

In our ‘politically correct’ culture, such an emotive response to what we see around us can appear insensitive. But that is why love for righteousness is also listed. Christ loved righteousness AND hated iniquity. We are called to do the same. We might argue that they cannot be separated. If we love those who are marginalized, then we hate the system that creates such marginalization.

3. It is striking that the writer to the Hebrews twice refers to Christ being joyful, the other statement being in chapter 12; ‘who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising its shame.’ Joy is an eternal quality. It is a proper response to the utter generosity of God. It is mentioned alongside suffering, since joy remains even in our experience of suffering.

Followers of Jesus Christ cannot be miserable! We are recipients of immeasurable bounty from God Himself through Jesus Christ. We are utterly unworthy of the least of this bounty. Our response must be gratitude and joy.

And so, we bring the very character of Jesus Christ into this dark and needy world.

“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”

So writes C S Lewis in Prince Caspian.

The Bible rarely tells us what would have happened if a person had taken a different decision. One exception is found in 2 Kings 13. Elisha instructed the king to strike the ground with his arrows. The king stopped after doing so three times. Elisha rebuked him for this, “You should have struck five of six times. Then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it.” But generally, in His mercy, God keeps from us what would have happened, or what might have happened.

But, there is another exception, the most important matter of all. Paul writes about the resurrection of Jesus Christ in 1 Cor 15.12-19;

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If Christ had not been raised from the dead, this life becomes worthless. But, Paul insists, Christ has risen from the dead, and that changes everything!