There is a popular hymn sung around this time of year called “We Gather Together.” You have probably heard of it. Most congregations sing it the week before Thanksgiving. If you need a refresher, here are the lyrics:
Verse 1:
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.
Verse: 2
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!
Verse 3:
We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
You might be surprised that this song was not created with the holiday in mind. It was written in 1597 to celebrate a victory of the Dutch over Catholic Spain in the Battle of Turnhout. Dutch protestants were forbidden to gather for worship by the Spanish King, so this song was all about religious freedom.
We sing it now and think of Thanksgiving, where gathering is central to the holiday. It is interesting that there are both traditional and variable things that people do on the holiday. Everyone pretty much expects that you will gather in some way with family or friends. But the way you do it differs. That is why people often ask each other “What are you doing for Thanksgiving?” Can you celebrate Thanksgiving yourself? Sure you can. You can cook a turkey and other foods, set it all out, give thanks for it and eat. But most people probably wouldn’t plan on doing that if they had the choice.
Sometimes family that you haven’t seen in a while visit for Thanksgiving. Sometimes so many people come over that you have to have another table. Or maybe you get out the “kid’s table.” You have to have somewhere to put the children, right? This table is often in a different room than the main table. I think that is probably because parents don’t want to hear the kids arguing over the silliest of things. The phrase “Mom! So-and-so is doing this!” for example. Kids can have strange disagreements, but what I find even stranger is the method they use to try and resolve those differences. They will go on a recruitment campaign. Perhaps they leave the table to come get Mom or Dad to be on their side of the argument. Or maybe they will get more kids who agree with them to chime in.
Kids have a knack for this. They might, when getting a response they didn’t want from one parent, go and ask the other parent for the same thing. It is a classic move. Do adults do this too? You bet. Psychologists even have a name for this type of behavior. They call it triangulation. It is the name for the situation caused by a conflict between two parties, where one party will try to recruit a third party to its side. Friends will do this. Kids will do this. Even parents will do this to their kids, sometimes without the other parent even aware that it is happening (“Just wait until your father gets home!”).
We use triangulation to seek reinforcement of our own views. If we get someone who agrees with us then it is two against one.
Did this kind of thing happen to Jesus? Was he ever the victim of triangulation? Oh yes he was.
Matthew 12:1-14
12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
Also look at Matthew 19:1-3
19 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
and again in Mark 12:13
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
There are more, but I will stop there. What is going on here? Notice how there isn’t a time when just one person goes to Jesus to test him. It is always a group of people that do. Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians. All plural. It is a classic case of ganging up on someone. If we all agree on something, and you alone don’t, then you must be in the wrong. Jesus doesn’t fall for it, and neither should we.
One of the best movies ever made was the movie “12 Angry Men.” In it a jury is asked to give a verdict in a murder trial, and at first the evidence seems to be overwhelming in favor of the plaintiff. There is only one juror who is not in immediate agreement to render a guilty verdict. As the film progresses though, that one person is able to instill reasonable doubt in the other jurors until at the end all of them are on his side. The story shows just how challenging it can be to overcome triangulation, but it also shows us how important it is that we strive to do so.
God Bless