"8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna[b] to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[c]
“Hosanna[d] in the highest heaven!”
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”" - Matthew 21:8-11
Today is Palm Sunday, and as much of a celebration it is of Jesus and the praise he ordained, it is a warning and an example of the hypocrisy and fair weathered-ness that us humans are capable of. The reason I say this, is because less than one week from this day, the people, the same people who praised his entry into the city, were crying out "Crucify him." How often do we as modern day Christians go from worshiping God on Sundays at church, to saying "crucify him" by the way we live our lives? To me, Palm Sunday this year should be a time of reflection of the way we our living our lives and how we could change that to reflect praise for Christ.
Also, the section immediately after Jesus enters the city, says that he went to the temple. Jesus, for the second or third time, ran out all those who were selling doves and changing money. He then quoted both Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. "13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers."" When I saw this I immediately thought of the Church. Too often do Christians try to make really expensive churches with neat stuff and cool looking designs to draw in non-believers. They see it as "outreach." But shouldn't our outreach be concerned with prayer like Jesus says here? I mean, its cool to try to reach out to non-believers but the way we do it should not be bought with money, but done by the people living lives reflecting Christ. I am trying not to be confusing because it's late and I may not be writing as clearly as it is in my head.
What I am just trying to say out of this, is that I do not want our worship to be done one day out of the week, or even just two. It should be done the entire week. I'll leave you with this, if Jesus walked into your church, would he call it a den of robbers or a house of prayer?
