“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
John 12:13b
The people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as a king. They worshipped Him, laid palm branches and clothes before Him. They shouted praises to Him — Hosanna! Hosanna!.
It seemed everyone was happy to see their Savior.
But it didn’t take long before the mood of the crowd changed. Only a few short days later Jesus was arrested, given a mock trial, beaten and sentenced to death on the cross. Pilate tried to let Jesus go free. But the chief priests and other officials began to chant Crucify Him, Crucify Him! (John 19:6) Their chants soon incited the crowd to join in and some of the same people that worshipped Jesus a few days before were now ready to see Him die!
Unbelievable, we say. How quickly and easily their minds were changed. We may be quick to criticize them, but the truth is that we react much in the same way sometimes. We let the words or actions of others cause us to forget what we know about our Lord — that He loves us and died to take our sins away. When the world says Jesus is not real- do we speak up? When a lost person makes light of our beliefs, do we stand firm and lovingly try to tell him/her about Jesus? When laws are being decided that are morally wrong, do we exercise our right to vote? Do we always take advantage of opportunities to witness to others and share the gospel, even if we are in the minority?
It is sad to say, but many times we all fail to stand up for our Lord. But Jesus never failed to stand up for us. He took on our sins and died that we might be forgiven. He rose again to life that we might have eternal life. He asks only that we love Him and accept His salvation. For this we should be the loud voice leading the crowd saying Praise Him, Praise Him! Our voices and actions should be pointing others to Christ and His love.