We are fast approaching Palm Sunday so I thought it appropriate to share a few things about it. Palm Sunday recognizes the day in which Christ rode into Jerusalem. It was a huge event in view of everything Jesus had done to fulfill the prophecies concerning the Jewish Messiah. God had promised them a king that would deliver them and to a great many people it was increasingly looking like Jesus was the one. The people came out in multitudes to the street to greet him, laying down palm leaves in his path shouting, “Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord!”

The strange thing is that in only a matter of days instead of being greeted with palm branches in his path he was greeted with the palms of men’s hands as they smote him. How could it have gone from that incredible event at the Triumphant Entry to only a few days later multitudes shouting, “crucify him?” It shows us something very wrong with our nature. Men are often willing to stand for what is right until it requires that they do something that might be uncomfortable (in this case going against popular opinion). What lows we will sink to in order to avoid being the oddball.

I can remember after we were attacked on 9/11 seeing “God bless America,” all over the place. Flags were flying high and prayers were going up in public everywhere and not a peep was heard about “separation of church and state.” You would think that suddenly our nation was once again the God-fearing nation built on the principles of Christianity that it was intended to be. It was as if we became a nation of believers again. But, fast forward in time and what we see is a nation even more anti-God than ever. There was the appearance of revival but nothing genuine or lasting. The attendance in our churches (bible-teaching, God-fearing churches) demonstrates that. People are willing to stand for what is right so long as they don’t have to do anything uncomfortable.

This is why the churches that are the most popular are the ones whose teachings are the most comfortable. If such people came to the realization that the Jesus being presented to them and the Jesus of reality are worlds apart, they too would be willing to abandon him and shout, “Crucify him!” because he doesn’t fit their ideal of who Jesus is supposed to be. That’s not the Jesus they want. They want the one that is never angry, never stern, never forceful, never to be feared, and NEVER speaks of “sin, righteousness, and judgment.” I’m quite convinced that the Anti-Christ will be exactly like this Jesus.

The Jesus the Jewish people saw before them (beaten, battered, and bruised) was not the Jesus they wanted and therefore had no problems supporting his crucifixion. Now, I understand it had to be this way in order for him to save us from our sin. I’m not saying the crucifixion shouldn’t have happened. What I am saying is this, if you have this image of who Christ is, what he is like, and what he should do and it does not match the Christ of the Bible you’ll have a serious problem when you find out otherwise. Get yourself into a Bible-teaching, God-fearing church and get to know the Jesus Christ of the Bible.