Fickle People

         You sometimes desire to do something just after you have been told not to do it. It seems to be a reaction to authority. When a child is told not to touch something, you can almost watch them sneak a glance at you while their hand is moving toward the object they were told not to touch. When there is a shortage of something you are tempted to see if you can get it anyway even though you don't need it. It seems to be human nature to be able to defy being told to do anything. The ultimate plan of a few can cause chaos in the masses. John 12:13 says, “Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

          Israel was ripe for change in the time that the Lord Jesus Christ walked on the earth. The country had been under bondage for the past 500 years and the attitude of the zealots in the country and the dislike of the Romans made the country ready for chaos. After the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the popularity of the Lord Jesus Christ went up considerably. Going into Jerusalem shortly thereafter, the people reacted in what was seemingly a noble gesture and shouted “Hosanna” when Christ came riding in on a donkey. It caught on quickly and the people seemed to be all for Christ and His disciples. Our Bibles entitle the experience as the “Triumphal Entry int Jerusalem.” Oddly enough, the triumphant attitude soon gave way in about 5 days as the plans unfolded for the arrest and trial of the Savior. We now call the events of this week, the Holy Week. The shouting crowds of the triumphal entry soon give way to the shouting mobs crying out, “Crucify Him.” The people were easily turned from one emotion to another. In one setting they are expectant and hopeful in what Christ could do for them. In the next moment, they are hateful and angry and would be ready to have Him nailed to a cross and killed. It is easy for us to sit back and read about it in our Bibles today and to understand what was going on and that it was all a part of God's ultimate plan that would lead to the payment for all of our sins. We can see that now by looking back on the situation but had we been there during those days, we probably wouldn't have acted any different than the masses did during that time. We can learn a lot by looking at history and we can easily make applications into our present situations yet we often make the same mistakes and then wonder in the end what had just happened. After all was said and done, we did the same thing only in a different time. Our sinful nature often raises its head when we are told to do something that might be beneficial in the end. I can think of countless times my parents would give me instructions to do or to not to do something, and I would do the opposite of what they expected. It was the forbidden fruit all over again and I made the same mistake that was made in the Garden of Eden. The final week, which we call the “Passion Week,” was filled with a lot of instruction as we can see in the final chapters of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John spends nine chapters, 12-20, detailing the events of one week. In that period of time, the Lord Jesus Christ taught the disciples and us, a lot of things that are important in our Christian life. One of those things was about the love we are to have one towards another. John 13:24-35 says, “ A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” His love towards us was so great that He went to the cross and suffered and died for you and me bearing the penalty of all of our sins. This is the example that we are to follow in regard to our live for others. We are to love one another with that same love. Praise god today for His love toward us. May we indeed have that same love toward each other.