Today Hosanna, later: Crucify Him!

It is Palm Sunday. The day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The crowd rejoiced and waved palm branches at him – hence Palm Sunday.

And here is a Bible verse fitting for Palm Sunday:

Thus says the LORD: „Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD!“

– Jeremiah 17:5

„Wait,“ you cry, „that doesn’t fit at all!“

„Yes, yes it does,“ I reply, „let me explain.“

When I think of Palm Sunday, I always also think of the admonition of a wise man referring to it. (I can’t recall exactly who it was. Was it a Pope?)

That wise man said, in essence: When people praise you, remember that they also waved palm branches at Jesus – and five days later they cried: „Crucify him!“

The actual verses read, of course:

And a very great multitude spread their garments on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: „Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!“

– Matthew 21:8–9

The crowd considered Jesus a prophet, one of the „celebrities“ of that time. It’s not much different today: People gather together to admire the one who is famous because he is famous, even when they know nothing about him except that he is famous.

Oh, how fickle is the crowd!

But the high priests knew better than the crowd who Jesus was.

And they decided to manipulate the Romans in such a way that they would kill Jesus.

When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.

– Matthew 27:1

Yes, the high priests would indeed succeed in having Jesus executed. But the historical consequences of this „success“ were very different from what they had planned.

Today is Palm Sunday. The Christian within the Christian is called to receive Jesus with jubilation, as the crowd once did.

But let the realist within the Christian be reminded of the fickleness of the crowd. The crowd can be whipped up in one direction and then in another – and reliably for the wrong reason each time.

Cursed is the man, Jeremiah warns, who trusts in man!

Nothing is true merely because the crowd believes it to be true.

Nothing is false merely because the crowd believes it to be false.

What is true is true because it corresponds with what is the case. But to credibly establish this correspondence has always required truly credible authority.