I have spent many years in ministry, specifically ministry in California. Please don't hate me. I love California and I love the people there. They, just like you, are trying their best to live their lives, and among the Christians there, they are bravely and courageously ministering and serving their God in a new land. What I mean by that is, places like California and New York are the center of our post Christian movement in the United States. Whole generations of families live and die without going to church or knowing who Jesus truly is. As a Christian growing up in such a place, as a minister and pastor serving my entire young adult life in such a place, I have gained some characteristics, some habits, some good and some bad. A good characteristic I learned was how to talk to people about their agnosticism, their need for the spiritual and the role morality plays in a godless culture. I can talk with anyone about morality, culture, spirituality, even the concept of God. A more negative characteristic I learned while being a Christian in such an agnostic, post church, post christian place, is how to tiptoe around the more difficult truths concerning the gospel. You don't want to get into fights with others and you don’t want to come across as judgmental or pushy. To be judgemental is the cardinal sin of my generation. Keep your faith to yourself and whatever you do, don’t shout about it. When I read about this man's experience with Jesus it leaves me in wonder at the lesson here. He’s so loud and direct that the very people surrounding Jesus are made uncomfortable with his pleas. They told him to shut up and stay put. The very disciples whom Jesus was training, told a poor blind man to shut up and stay quiet. I expect the world to try their hardest to quiet people; however, we all know the pain when our fellow christ followers tell people, people who are in need of Jesus, to shut up and be quiet. This should be to our shame. We must repent of this sin! To think that it is up to us to filter people for Jesus. The world already does an excellent job shutting us up, we cannot allow ourselves to add our voice to it. Thank God Jesus steps in. Jesus hears and calls him forward and asks him what must be the silliest question this man has ever been asked, “what do you want?” Why do you think Jesus asks such an obvious question? Was it for His benefit, the blind man's benefit, or maybe this was for the disciples to hear. The ones who tried, and failed, to shut him up? Jesus rewards this man's annoying, persistent and loud faith.
Please do not forget what's important. In our service, and in our attention to following Jesus so closely, let's not discard the very people we should be bringing to Him.
Have you ever felt a crowd turn? I was at a concert once, a christian concert. There were a bunch of artists, and Relient K had just finished their set and then Thousand Foot Krutch took the stage. Imagine you are front row at a Celine Dion concert and Metallica then took the stage and opened with One. The crowd turned. It went from “hey this is nice” to “let's squeeze each other to death while a hundred people throw their hands in every direction at once”. Ok, what does this have to do with the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ? This crowd praising and welcoming, singing hosanna and proclaiming the return of King David, is a double edged sword. There is something lurking under the surface here. They don’t know the reality of Jesus’ coming, the true reality of God’s Kingdom coming to earth. They believe that King David has come to throw off the Roman occupiers. As the week unfolds and the realization that this carpenter was no King David, they turn. This worshiping crowd, in one week's time will be the crowd to lead Jesus to Golgotha. Hosanna will become crucify! The people who longingly called out for King David! Will cry out for the death of the King of the jews. To me, this is an important moment displaying the hypocrisy of man. We worship and proclaim the wonders of God, and then doubt and curse when his wonders don't match our expectations. But this is why I love Jesus. Jesus knows how fickle we are. He knows our praise and our cursing. He knows us. It was over the crowd that proclaimed hosanna and crucify that he pleaded with his father to forgive them, for they did not know what they were doing.
Let us proclaim hosanna with broken hearts simply submitting to our true king. Let's lay down our expectations, desires, grievances, and pains before his humble feet and cry out in whatever voice we have left Hosanna, and when our voice quits and we have no more to say, may our hearts take up the beat of hosanna.
