Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Hail Him to Nail Him in a week...

The Sarcastic Lutheran has a thought provoking post concerning Holy Week...

Every year, on this, the first day of Holy Week, as we read about the fickle crowds waving their palms and laying down their cloaks and shouting hosanna in the highest to the guy riding into Jerusalem on a donkey – or a colt, or whatever- an unimpressive animal, and I do, I cringe.  Like I’m just a little bit embarrassed for how sure they seem of themselves and how miserably they are about to fail when put to the test. I hear of the celebration that day and cringe knowing how quickly  the shouts of the fickle crowd go from hail him to nail him. And I think to myself “they are only hailing him as a king because they don’t get it.  They don’t know what’s about to go down, so really, it’s all just empty praise”

That day the multitude of the disciples – the same ones who will deny and abandon him were praising God joyfully with loud voices for the great deeds of power they had seen and they were shouting Hosanna…, and praising God is great but In his famous poem Murder in the Cathedral, TS Elliot said

"Tis the greatest treason to do the right thing for the wrong reason."

Yeah, their triumphant celebration feels regretfully treasonous to those of us who know how this all is about to play out.

Read it all, she makes some excellent points....

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