Mass Insanity

It was in the top of the 57 minute seventh inning of the deciding game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers.  Fifty thousand nail biting nervous fans in the Roger's Centre were devastated, and even uncharacteristically angered in some cases.  Their beloved Blue Jays were now down by a run due to a fluky, once in a lifetime call at home plate.  Everyone in the stadium and across Canada was numb.  Would Canada's team lose the series because of a controversial play, a questionable dead ball call by the umpire, and a baseball rule that took 18 minutes and MLB experts in New York to figure out?  Emotions sank into a dungeon of despair.  Then, in the bottom of the inning, the sound of the crack of the bat was heard echoing throughout the stadium.  Fanaticism exploded as every last fan jumped to his feet in joyous relief.  Emotions rose to the heavens.  Jose Bautista's three run, third deck, home run would eventually win the game and the series for the Jays.  Fifty thousand fans yelled, screamed, hugged, and danced for joy.  The stadium was rocking.  The roof was ready to blow.  Everyone was hysterical.  It was mass insanity.   

I've been in the Roger's Centre with its fifty thousand insane fans.  It was this kind of fanaticism my pastor friend scolded us for not having in our Sunday morning meetings.  I told him that I didn't yell, scream, or dance at a ball game, so why would I yell, scream, and dance in a gathering of the saints.  I seldom even clap my hands, although being a guitar player, I might be seen playing air guitar during worship.  To be sure, I am passionate about the Lord, but I don't express my passion in such fanatical outbursts.  That's just not me.

Fanaticism may not be part of who I am now but that may change.  Who I am now may not be who I will be when I leave this world behind.  The time may come when I, yes maybe even I, might lose all sense of human rationality.  I may not be celebrating Jesus' victory with the white robed martyred saints of Revelation 7 but I'm sure I'll be celebrating in similar victory celebrations.     

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'  All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.  They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying, 'Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.  Amen (Revelation 7:9 to 12 NIV)!"

I'm sure you'd agree.  All human celebrations pale in comparison to this victory celebration when the countless number of saints and the myriad of heavenly angels worship the Lord Jesus Christ.  According to one modern usage of the word, this gathering, and those like it, will be insane.  All of the normal processes of human rational behaviour will not be seen in these majestic moments. 

I am a Toronto Blue Jay fan.  My emotions, although tempered by more important things in life, rise and fall with the ebb and flow of baseball.  The insanity seen in the recent Blue Jays victory is a pathetic outburst of human emotion when compared to the unimaginable insane hysteria seen throughout the book of Revelation. 

In 2 Corinthians 5:13 the Apostle Paul said that "If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God."  Be assured, the time will come when we will be out of our human minds.  We will celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ.  It will be mass insanity.