Lately, as many of us often do, I’ve been writing about groupthink, mob hatred, the herd mentality, going with the flow, and the difficulty of being truly independent. (Go here, for example.) I’m not sure you’ll find a starker example than in Mark 15:
And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross.
Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.
And they that were crucified with him reviled him.
Even when you’re dying on the cross, as those two criminals were, you have to be with the in crowd? You have to be cool? Even then you can’t depart from the herd? The pull to join in, to go with the flow, to hate who and what the mob hates, must be very, very strong.