Anybody been watching all of the political primaries going on
this year? You’d
almost have to live under a rock to NOT hear about it. Seems to be all the News talks about. Well, to understand the Gospels, imagine with
me that Jesus was part of the political primary…Jesus is a candidate for President! With that in mind…
Listen again to what the crowd was crying out as Jesus entered
Jerusalem:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the
name of the Lord.” Some
of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher,
rebuke your disciples.”
“if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!”
Who are these people waving palms and screaming for joy as their candidate
enters Jerusalem? They were getting so
rowdy and shouting SO loudly that the Pharisees told them to shut up.
It reminds me a lot of a political rally... Everybody gets worked
up into a frenzy, and people who normally would be silent and grumpy with their
arms crossed seem to wake up and throw all of their support behind their
candidate. For some reason, politics is
one of those topics that churn up a lot of emotion in us so we will do and say
things that otherwise we would consider – well – uncivilized. If anybody in the crowd tries to speak
contrary to MY candidate or tries to point out the lies being told, they risk
being lynched by the mob.
Most candidates today court us with catch phrases, real us in
with rhetoric, and pandered to us with promises…and for some, Our fears are fanned
into flame by words of hate.
Not Jesus – as a candidate, He speaks of
Love. He speaks of Truth. But more than words… He
goes on to prove He IS from God by the miracles he worked…
like when he healed that crippled guy in the Temple on the Sabbath. It was enough to convince the crowd in Jerusalem,
at least for a day….that Jesus is the King. It wasn’t based on rhetoric or flowery
speeches. They have SEEN for themselves what
he can do. They were SO convinced, they
took to the streets waving palms and shouting HOSANNA!
But… where were these people one week
later when the crowds cried CRUCIFY HIM!
Unfortunately, a lot of them were the same crowd. How could they go from Hosanna to Crucify in
one week?
Well – it’s similar to our current political
situation.
No matter what a candidate says, It can be hard –
even impossible - to decide if they are a good candidate. It seems it’s no longer about what a candidate
will do, but about what the other candidates have done wrong. Everyone is quick to point a finger…to
try to make us afraid of how bad things will be if the other candidate wins. People throw doubt and hate into the decision
by presenting their own versions of the truth, half-truths, and even outright
lies.
You’ve seen this happen, haven’t
you? Often, somebody takes one truth and
puts their own spin on it... posts it on Facebook or CNN with a suggestive
title ... And suddenly thousands of people have their opinion formed and set in
stone... Few people actually read the article, and even fewer check the facts
to see if the article is true. The
HEADLINE is what sets our opinion.
This is nothing new though...
I imagine some Pharisee from the Jerusalem Daily Gazette -
sitting with his iPhone typing up an article declaring that Jesus is OBVIOUSLY
evil because he broke the Sabbath. The
headline just says, “Jesus, the impostor, Breaks the
Sabbath”... The average Jew would think – well –
I 'thought' Jesus was the one, but OBVIOUSLY Jesus CAN’T be the Messiah if He broke the Sabbath…and
it was a chief Priest who wrote the article, so it MUST be true. Suddenly, public opinion is turned against
him. The facts don’t
seem to matter: The HEADLINE is the
opinion former… nobody actually reads the article or
checks the facts to understand that Jesus “broke the Sabbath”
by curing a crippled man. Even a MIRACLE
can be twisted into something bad. Perhaps
that could explain why the same crowd that shouted HOSANNA one day turned
against Jesus by the end of the week…they were swayed by the headlines.
Put yourself in that political rally with Jesus –
the candidate for King. Which side of
the crowd are we on? Do we WANT Christ
as OUR King? Think seriously about that:
Does Christianity have ANY impact on our decision about who
should be our leader?
Like the crowd in the Gospel, we've allowed the world to rebuke
us to be silent. Anybody speaking Truth
with Love will get squashed… but Jesus promised, “if
we keep silent, the stones will cry out!” You and I are called to join the
stones in continuing to declare as loudly as we can... With our tongues, with
our knees, with our votes, and with the way we live, that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD and King.
Yes, even today, the stones still cry out….because
people have stopped shouting for Jesus.
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