Friends in Christ Weekly Message
April 8, 2006

     The people gave him a wonderful welcome, some throwing their coats on the street, others spreading out rushes they had cut in the fields. Running ahead and following after, they were calling out,

     Hosanna!
     Blessed is he who comes in God's name!
     Blessed the coming kingdom of our father David!
     Hosanna in highest heaven!
Mark 11:8-10 (Message*)

     But the high priests by then had worked up the crowd to ask for the release of Barabbas. Pilate came back, “So what do I do with this man you call King of the Jews?”
     They yelled, “Nail him to a cross!”
     Pilate objected, “But for what crime?”
     But they yelled all the louder, “Nail him to a cross!”
Mark 15:11-14 (Message*)

I've often wondered how many of the people who were in the crowd on Palm Sunday shouting “Hosanna!” were also in the crowd a few short days later yelling, “Nail him to a cross!” The sentiments of the masses can be fickle, and can be manipulated by clever leaders.

What lesson can we learn from these stories? Do we need to be looking closely at our behavior from day to day to see whether we are honoring Christ in all we say and do? Are there times when our behavior makes us fit better into the latter crowd than the former?

I pray that we each might be steadfast in following Jesus Christ, not being swayed by the voices in our culture who might lead us otherwise, some of them perhaps - as in Jesus' day - institutional religious leaders.

Bill Samuel

* The Message version ©2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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