He has Risen!

                                                                   

                                                                       He Has Risen!

    Yesterday was Palm Sunday. The day Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on the colt of a donkey. The people stood along the way shouting Hosanna! Hosanna! It must have been exciting to see. The people were thrilled and ecstatic. They knew that their King was coming and He was going to put to rights all that the Roman government had done wrong. That is what they thought. Things turned out differently.

   Instead of Jesus coming and taking up an earthly royal robe and crown like the people thought He would. He was put though a kangaroo court of sorts. He was pronounced “guilty”. He was condemned to death.  His clothing was stripped from His body and the royal crown they envisioned being placed on His head became a crown of thorns. One year for VBS my husband fashioned a crown of thorns from a mesquite branch. We that live in the southwest are very familiar with mesquite. He picked the one with the longest spines he could find. It was a wicked looking thing. All the children had the chance to look at it and touch it as the story of the crucifixion was explained to them. It made an impression. It made an impression on me as well. Can you imagine having something like that pushed down on your head? Look at a long thorny mesquite branch and give it a think. His body was beaten. His body was bruised. The bible tells us He was beaten so severely He was unrecognizable as a man.   If that was not enough He was then lead through the streets carrying the instrument of His death. A wooden cross. The same people that just days before had laid down robes and branches before him as He rode through, and had shouted” Hosanna, Hosanna”! Now shouted” Crucify Him, Crucify Him”!

   How things had changed. The crowds that followed Him were now the crowds that mocked Him. The crowds that had seen with their own eyes miracles. People healed! People set free from bondage!  People set free from sin! Turned on Him. The crowd of 5000 fed from two fish and five loaves of bread who ate and were filled, some of them could easily have been in that crowd. Crowds that had not only seen their spiritual needs met but their physical needs as well. Jesus ministered to them all. He loved them all. He was no discerner of persons. Jesus saw no person any differently from another. As long as Jesus did what they expected Him to do, as long as He lived up to the image of the King they built up in their minds, He was worshipped and adored.

    We can look back on that week, by reading the gospels. We have a bird’s eye view so to speak. It is easy for us to condemn the crowds. It is easy for us to be like Peter and declare, “I will never betray you Lord!” It is easy to say I would never have done that! Here’s the thing. When the Lord does all the things we expect Him to do, we are like the crowds shouting “Hosanna Hosanna!” When things do not go as we expect we get our feelings hurt and we very easily are turned into the crowd that shouts “crucify Him, crucify Him!”

   Even His followers, the disciples failed Him in his final hours. He asked them to pray and they slept.  Betrayed by those He loved. Condemned to death. Mocked. Beaten. Crucified. The Man who had no sin. The Man who said, “no one takes my life, I freely give it.”  That Man Jesus gave His life for us, those who love and follow Him. He gave His life for those that shouted, “Crucify Him.” From the cross He said in a loud voice, “Father forgive them. They know not what they do!” Even on the cross, He never stopped loving. In His pain, He never stopped caring. He never stopped saving sinful man from himself. The thief by His side was promised paradise. Was Jesus just a man? A good teacher? Could a mere mortal man endure what He endured and still love? The proof of His undying love for man is found at the cross. The proof of His being whom He said He is, found on the third day in an empty tomb.

     “And on the third day He was raised!”

     

     He has risen! He has risen indeed!

Have a blessed Trails Resurrection Sunday!

God Bless and Happy