The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" Matthew 21:9
Good morning, friends.
I love the song ‘More than a baby in the manger’, and if I start listening to it, I will listen to it several times in a row. Today’s subject is based on a line which is conveyed in this song. We celebrated Palm Sunday this past Sunday, with palm branches, and crosses made of these palm branches.
This is what Matthew 21 says. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
The above incident happened to fulfill what the Prophet Zechariah had prophesied, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9
Hosanna means ‘uttering Praises to God aloud’. The crowd praised Him as He was on His way to Jerusalem. A few days later, the same crowd, cried aloud asking Him to be crucified. When I think about this crowd the very next thought I have inside of me is, “Isn’t it weird for them to cry aloud praises to Jesus followed by crying for His crucifixion?” You may also have the same question today.
We may feel that it was very odd for the people who praised Him, to then cry out for His crucifixion even though they haven’t seen Jesus giving His life for them. How much strange is it for us (who know that He gave His life for us) to crucify Him on the cross every time we sin or yield ourselves to various temptations? This Sunday our Pastor talked about sin. “Sin will always take us further than we want to go. Sin will always keep us longer than we want to stay. Sin comes along with the guilt. Guilt comes with the package of a mask we put on, on our face to hide who we are really.”
When He gave His life for us on the cross with His arms wide open, He showed His unconditional love when we were quite unlovable. When we go astray from Him, we also crucify Him with masked faces. It is worse than what the people of Israel did 2000 years ago. How long are we going to reject someone over and over and over again?
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