A Palm Sunday meditation

    The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.  So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
    “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
    behold, your king is coming,
        sitting on a donkey's colt!”
    His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.-John 12:12-19

It had been prophesied hundreds of years earlier that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to shouts of rejoicing. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"  The people had seem him work wonders.  They had seen him do the impossible.   In fact, he had just raised a man from the dead who had been entombed 4 days.  It was a miracle. 

Yet, in less than a week, all that would change.  The joyous shouts of "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" would turn into angry shouts of "crucify him!"  The fickle crowd, so easily swayed by the Pharisaic leadership and their own sinful hearts would soon demand his blood. 

It is so easy for us today, in the light of history, to look back with contempt upon the mercurial crowds who loved and accepted him one moment and despised and rejected him the next.  Yet we must recognize that we are no different.  We sing his praises on Sunday morning and by Monday, our bitter words and sinful actions lead him betray our confidence in him.  Based upon our actions, we may as well have been a part of the crowd shouting crucify. 

We are sinners.  That is why Christ came--to deliver us from our perpetual sin.  So while we celebrate his triumphal entry today proclaiming "blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" let us also remember that we are no different from the angry mob, all of us in need of a Savior.