As we celebrated Palm Sunday weekend, my mind began pondering what the real day must have been like. There was Jesus riding on a donkey. There was Jesus, being praised with shouts of, “Hosanna, hosanna!” filling the air. What a celebration day! What an electric atmosphere it must have been!
Yet, just a few days later, some of the same people were ready to take back their “hosannas,” and shout, “Crucify!”
People can sing our praises one week, and be hoping for our destruction the next. (Just keeping it real!) How did Jesus react? Jesus just continued traveling in the will of God. With all the shouts of praises, He did not get a “big” head. He just rode into town to do the will of God. He never forgot His purpose.
Later, when some of the same people were ready to kill Him, Jesus just continued yielding to the will of God. At that point, He did not say, “Forget this! Forget people and forget the will of God! I’m over this!”
Jesus could have easily walked according to the praises of people. “Hosanna!” certainly sounds better to the ear than, “Crucify!”
Along with many others, I have gone down the road with people shouting, “Hosanna! Oh, Barbara, we love you! You are a mighty woman of God.” Yet, the time came, when some of those same people cried, “Crucify her! Get her out of here! She is evil!”
I don’t make the above statement to evoke sympathy, but to say that one cannot walk the will of God expecting to please people. Thank God for the times we can please both God and people! Still, we all must face the fact that people can turn on you in a New York minute. People are … well, they are people.
One of the saddest things I see is the number of people who have gotten off the donkey, and quit riding into the will of God, because someone is no longer shouting, “Hosanna!”
“Hosanna” did not lead how Jesus walked his life. God did. People were not what he lived for, but people were who he died for.
Today, get back up on that donkey, and keep riding into the will of God. In the end, Jesus had victory over people, death, hell and the grave. In the end, Jesus was raised to sit at the right hand of the Father. In the end, Jesus had the shouts of heaven. Heaven had the last word and it was, “Hosanna!”
So true Barbara – oh how quickly the sentiment can change with from loving you, thinking you’re just the greatest to trying to undermine and see how they can figure a way to move you out and on your way!! You must know you’re where God placed you, knowing who you are in Christ and who He is in you. Keep your focus on Him – keep loving, forgiving and doing what He’s called you to do and being who he called you to be! Learning we weren’t there to please people but to please and be obedient to our Lord! God is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek him – and He will and He does!!:) <3
same holds true today, give us what we want or we’re leaving.