Palm Sunday
We call this Palm Sunday in remembrance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey while the people of the city waved palm branches and even laid them in the streets as Jesus passed by. They worshiped and praised Him, honoring Him for all the great things He had done. He certainly was worthy and still is worthy of our worship, of our praise and we do need to honor Him for all the great and wonderful things He has done for us.
Unfortunately, there is a sad turn to this story in the Bible. One day they are praising Him and shouting Hosannah in the highest but five days later they are shouting crucify Him! One day they are worshiping Him but five days later they are rejecting Him. Regrettably, that story continues to be acted out even in our day. A preacher by the name of Kevin Litchfield, in a sermon a few years ago put it like this: “many people know what to say, how to say it, even how to act in it, but when the rubber truly meets that road, there is no personal relationship with Jesus Christ. No salvation- just empty word.” In describing those of Jesus day, Kevin goes on to explain why they were so fickle: “one simple reason is that their words did not match their heart. They possessed a casual not a committed faith. They had religion but they missed the person Jesus.” Most of those people were doing this because they remember the miracles He had done. But they also thought He would be their King who would come and rescue them from the Roman Empire.
Many people today are the same way. They praise Jesus because He is “serving” them, helping them. They want Him to be the One who delivers them from trouble. But when trouble still comes they are ready to reject Jesus. As one said concerning those back then, and is still true today, “Their praise was tempered with the attitude of Jesus what can you do for me.”
In order to truly follow Jesus we have to have a committed faith which is centered on Jesus, not on ourselves. And this faith has to be based on a true relationship with Him. A relationship is ongoing; it is continual and constant and persistent. This should describe our relationship with Jesus. Back then many of the crowd had the herd mentality: if everybody else is doing I guess we should too. If it is popular to cry out Hosannah and wave palm branches then I guess that is what we need to do. If it is popular to turn and reject the very one we had been praising five days ago and cry crucify Him then that’s what we will do. May God help us to escape the herd mentality of doing what is popular and trendy and focus on the Him mentality, doing what He would have us do!
People also ran, and still run, on emotions. If emotions are high for Jesus, let’s praise Him, worship Him and honor Him. If that emotion fades out, then let’s focus on ourselves again and do our own thing. Don’t worry about Jesus and what He would desire and want of us!
May God help you and me not to be this way! We must be committed to having and maintaining a consistent and steady relationship with Jesus that puts Him first above all else! We praise Him and worship Him when it is the popular thing to do, but we still do it when it is not! We honor Him in all that we do no matter what is going on all around us, or what others may be doing. And we show it by doing what is pleasing to Him on an everyday basis. He is to be first! He is to be our focus! He is to be our very life! And He is certainly worthy! May we honor Him today!