Sunday 13th April 2025 – Lent 5

There were crowds to welcome Jesus. A few were His followers. They recognised something special about Him, something about His teaching, something about the way He interacted with people. They’d stick with Him through thick and thin. Some thought He was a good teacher. They liked the Sermon on the Mount, the lovely parables. It was ‘nice’ to hear
someone talk about the meek, the widow, the orphan. They weren’t too sure about His mixing with ‘tax collectors and sinners’ but He was good with children. There were those for whom Jesus was the latest in a line of fashionable, charismatic leaders, the latest ‘fad’, here today, gone tomorrow. They’d lap up His teachings that made them feel ‘good’. And the odd one or two who were looking for a revolutionary leader. Jesus was the one who was going to overthrow the Romans, and if the odd dagger in the back helped, so much the better. So they all cheered that first Palm Sunday; palm leaves, coats, hand-waving, the lot. ‘Hosanna, hosanna!’ But Jesus didn’t start the revolution; He caused too much trouble to be a ‘fad’; some of the things He said were uncomfortable and not so ‘nice’. In the end, only His followers, His true disciples, stayed with Him.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then ‘Crucify!’ is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.
They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.

Rev Phil