Matt. 21: 8Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" 11And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."
Palm Sunday we walked about with palm leaves and followed a donkey to the church. It was very sweet and a tradition at our church. The children love it and it is thought provoking. This is where you moan and say "oh no, she's thinking again." What would it have been to be part of the crowd? Think about it. There were a lot of crowds mentioned in the Bible, seems they were always around. But there are two crowds that I'm specifically thinking about: the crowd that waved Jesus in and the crowd that cried for his death. What happened in between that changed the way the crowd thought.
Now, I know and understand what had to be. That's not the part that intrigues me. I think that in the first crowd we found people who saw the compassion of Jesus, these are the people that have been hearing him teach, people that have seen the miracles. Maybe they haven't understood the teaching, but they see something they want. A realness that is not there with the religious teachers of the day. The second crowd was stirred by the religious leaders. It was very deliberate in wanting to see Jesus dead. They didn't understand the teachings nor did they want understanding. They had a problem and wanted to be rid of it. So you lie to the crowd, you persuade them, and you get them to do what you want.
In thinking about the first crowd, what does that mean for us today? You see, the modern day church is much like that crowd. We have real believers, but we also have people that are just hanging on, they see something they like, but they aren't "all in." They recognize truth, but it's not the same as being part of the truth. But when it gets hard, then we see that the "truth" is not in them. Today I was reading Facebook and saw this from one of my friends, "Why do people claim to be this "perfect Christian" but in real life they are a horrible person?" She went on to say that it made no sense to her. Of course it makes no sense, how could it? We can't know the hearts of those around us, we can only go by what we see. Yet what we see may not be the best way to look either.
Then there is one of my favorite parts of the story in regards to how people responded. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, a secret believer. I can imagine that he probably watched the crowds, maybe even wishing that he could be part of it. That he could wave the branches, that he too could spread his coat out for Jesus. But he had so much to lose. A secret believer. But then after the crucifixion, he went to Pilate and asked for the body to bury it. Imagine what that cost him. He was now "all in."
And then there was the angry crowd. They wanted Jesus dead. But how much of it was people and how much of it was the religious leaders stirring the crowd? And how much of it was human nature confronted with truth? I suspect much of it goes to the latter.
I've thought about this all week, which crowd would I have been in. While I hope in some ways I would have welcomed Jesus in I fear I would have been more than willing to place him on that cross. And not because that was what had to happen. We all have to face that ourselves, that it was us, rather me, that put him on that cross. And now we have to keep coming back to that in order to live the way He taught. So in going back to what my friend wrote, here is my reply.... I'm sorry. All I can say is keep your eyes on Jesus and hope that you recognize that we are so human, and filled with human nature. I'm trying to keep my eyes off the crowd and on Jesus, but it's so much easier to follow that crowd.
No comments:
Post a Comment