"Hosanna" to "Crucify Him"

While I was doing dishes from lunch today, I started thinking about what to wear to the Good Friday service tonight.  I seem to remember some people wearing black in years past, but not everyone.  I then realized what a paradox this all is.  It parallels the crowd's behavior between Palm Sunday and Good Friday.  I will never forget how my youth pastor described it: one Sunday the crowd was shouting, "Hosanna" and the very next they were shouting, "Crucify Him!"  I remember thinking when I first heard this, "Well, maybe it was just a different group of people."

Today in front of the sink, however, I saw the paradox and war between natures in my own being.  My spirit is going tonight to mourn and recognize what Christ did for me in my sin.  My flesh is going tonight to mock and reject Jesus as my Lord and Savior, for he is not the expected King of the Jews.  One Sunday they cried, "Hosanna" because they thought Jesus would save them and be their king the way they expected and wanted Him to be.  The next Sunday they cried, "Crucify Him!" because He was not who they thought He should be.  How hidden Jesus was from them and yet they saw Him with their own eyes.  I am no different unless God gives me eyes to see.  God is most revealed and most hidden on the cross.

Thanks be to God that Jesus is who He says He is, and is not who I say He is.

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God...Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God."
- 1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-24