The Irony of Palm Sunday Celebration

The celebration of Palm Sunday is really a celebration of religion at its best. The religous mentality is a temporary flury of activity for God based on fear, guilt and pride. It is temporal--a fair show of the flesh. For the same people that were all excited when Jesus came into Jerusalem were the same people that shouted, "Crucify him! Give us Barabas!" Why did they ask for Barabas? Because Jesus had let them down. They expected God to kick the Romans out of Israel and make them fat, dumb and happy. When they saw a broken, bloody man, they became bitter in their disappointment. They wanted Barabas because he gets things done--He kills Romans! That, we understand, but we do not understand this weak, beaten man. What the crowds failed to realize, and we still fail to realize is that God's strength is manifested in weakness...it is never manifested in our own fleshly efforts, no matter how pretty the flesh looks. Don't mistake a service filled with pretty music and lots of other externals that make us feel good with God's power which manifest itself in weakness....the ability to love others. We can make all the noise we want in the flesh, but the world will not know we are Christ's disciples unless we love one another like Christ, not Barabas.