Recently I have been preparing for Easter and especial for a special service on Palm Sunday. It led me to thinking about how fickle humans beings can be.
New media starts are born in the bright lights and trumpets of showbiz, only to fade just as quickly as people turn their gaze to a new icon or role model promoted by the most recent films or TV shows. The game seems to be to try to keep in the public eye if you want to remain famous - maybe there is something to that old expression - all publicity is good publicity!
The same happens with books or fashion or cars or ... well with almost anything.
Jesus arrived at Jerusalem at the start of a large feast, Passover, he arrived with his entourage - his disciples, he arrived to crowds, crowds wanting to see what the "messiah", the teacher, the miracle man, was going to do. Surely all their hopes of future of greatness for their nation, hopes of freedom from a distant ruling power, were to be brought to be by this Jesus?
A few days later, those people in Jerusalem, manipulated (maybe) by the powers to be, were screaming for his death. A fickle lot, in my opinion. Their focus moved from heralding a messiah who would make them great, to pouring out their venom on him.
Even Jesus' own close disciples didn't stick with him, when push came to shove.
So what about those of us who believe in him today? I wonder what would cause any or each of us to falter as they did? Where would our line be? If we are honest, we probably don't know. We may well claim that it could never happen. But then I am sure those who buckled in the early days of Christianity when faced with the arena or a cross, thought they would withstand anything for Jesus.
We may all falter at some point. But, and there is a huge but, Jesus didn't count his disciples' failings, he empowered them and sent them off to start and continue his mission to save humanity. For me the thing is that Jesus calls us knowing that we are human, knowing that at times we will fail, knowing that we will get distracted. He loves us anyway and that's the thing.
New media starts are born in the bright lights and trumpets of showbiz, only to fade just as quickly as people turn their gaze to a new icon or role model promoted by the most recent films or TV shows. The game seems to be to try to keep in the public eye if you want to remain famous - maybe there is something to that old expression - all publicity is good publicity!
The same happens with books or fashion or cars or ... well with almost anything.
Jesus arrived at Jerusalem at the start of a large feast, Passover, he arrived with his entourage - his disciples, he arrived to crowds, crowds wanting to see what the "messiah", the teacher, the miracle man, was going to do. Surely all their hopes of future of greatness for their nation, hopes of freedom from a distant ruling power, were to be brought to be by this Jesus?
A few days later, those people in Jerusalem, manipulated (maybe) by the powers to be, were screaming for his death. A fickle lot, in my opinion. Their focus moved from heralding a messiah who would make them great, to pouring out their venom on him.
Even Jesus' own close disciples didn't stick with him, when push came to shove.
We may all falter at some point. But, and there is a huge but, Jesus didn't count his disciples' failings, he empowered them and sent them off to start and continue his mission to save humanity. For me the thing is that Jesus calls us knowing that we are human, knowing that at times we will fail, knowing that we will get distracted. He loves us anyway and that's the thing.
