Sunday 13th April

Palm Sunday

Ive just been reading some things others have written about Palm Sunday in order to try to marshall my thoughts - because there is so much to say its hard to know where to begin.

Something I have not really considered before is the attitude of the crowds of people who were welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with palm branches and Hosannas.  These were people who had heard the stories of the raising of Lazarus, and many of them will have seen Jesus at work, perhaps they will have been fed on a hillside with bread and fish.  Maybe they are the friends and family of some of the disciples.  The relatives of the many hundreds of cripples and sick people and demonised who Jesus had touched and healed and set free.   This was a crowd who believed in Jesus and who were hailing him as a King.  They probably believed that He was going to overthrow the Roman rule as the Messiah and put an end to the punitive regime of taxes and tributes and crucifixions along the roadsides.   They were a crowd full of hope and excitement and anticipation

Yet a few days later the people were baying for His blood.  Perhaps not these very same individuals, but nevertheless the atmosphere had completely changed and those who had only a few days previously been acclaiming Jesus as King were now nowhere to be seen.  And of course even His own disciples were betraying and denying Him.  What had happened?  How can people change their opinions so quickly?  How can all the testimony and healing and teaching and forgiveness be so easily drowned out by the whispers of the Pharisees?

And would we be any different?

If I had been in Jerusalem that week would I have behaved any differently?  Im not sure.  We all like to think that we are better than your average bod on the street.  But in actual fact we are all made of the same stuff. We all find it easy to get caught up with the crowd - for good and bad.   We can all so easily forget all the blessings and answered prayers and healings and miracles we have witnessed and turn our ears to the whisperings of doubt and the lies of the enemy.   And when others are shouting ' Crucify'  we can sometimes find it hard to raise a dissenting voice and continue to shout Hosanna.

So the challenge for us is to keep our eyes on the King.  To keep singing our endless hallelujahs and not to falter when things suddenly turn from glorious victory to apparent crushing defeat.  To not be deterred when everything on which we have pinned our hopes appears to come crashing to naught.  And to not be persuaded by the whispers of our enemy who wants to turn us from worshippers to disparagers . Because unlike the inhabitants of Jerusalem 2000 years ago, we know the end of the story.  :-)