Jesus and his disciples were making their way into Jerusalem when Jesus asked a couple of his followers to go ahead and find a donkey and her colt and bring them to him. The instructions were simple…if anyone approaches and asks what you are doing, tell them, “The Lord needs them.”
Jesus then rides the donkey into Jerusalem to fulfill the scripture and the thing about it all is that the people were cheering, they were excited, they were welcoming in their Messiah as they had been following his ministry for the past three years and had seen all the healing he had done, they had heard his messages, they had followed him from town to town.
This same group of people would less than a week later be the same group who would call for the freedom of Barabbas and the death of Jesus by way of crucifixion. What happened to cause the change of heart? Why did the people turn?
The truth is, they were scared…much as we are in our day. They were afraid for their lives if they didn’t join the crowd and call for the crucifixion of the one they had cheered just a week earlier. We do it as well, because we are so scared of how people will view us. We are scared that they might judge us based on their worldly views, but we should not let things keep us from living out the life that we are called to.
Church, we must not let the world tell us how to live…we must live like Christ…we must walk in his steps and we must follow the path that he has set for us. We may not know all the plans that God has for us, but if we live according to faith we can know that his plans are much better than our own. Jesus tells us to take up our own cross and follow him daily, and today, we must do just that.
I encourage you during this Easter season, take a long, hard look at your life and see how you are living. Are you loving like Jesus? Are you living like Jesus? Are you serving like Jesus? Are you winning others to the Kingdom of God? Are you showing the world that it has no hold on you? Are you living up to the name Christian?
It may be Friday in your life, but Sunday is coming!
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 2:7, (NKJV)