I wonder how many times have we laughed
at a joke, talked bad about someone, did something that just makes us feel like
we betrayed ourselves? We did so others
would like us and maybe later on praise us.
There’s just something about most of us that wants to be liked and even
praised by others. Yet if we begin to
study the life of Christ we begin to see that He lived His life not to be
praised by man but to please God. In
fact we may begin to understand why Christ spent His time pleasing God and not man
as we begin to look at the events of the
week leading up to His crucifixion. Let
us take a quick look at Matthew 21:1-11 “As
Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of
Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. “Go into the
village over there,” he said, “and you will see a donkey tied there, with its
colt beside it. Untie them and bring them here. If anyone asks what you are
doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately send them.”
This was done to fulfill the prophecy, “Tell the people of Israel, ‘Look, your King is coming to you. He is humble, riding on a
donkey— even on a donkey’s colt.’ ” The
two disciples did as Jesus said. They brought
the animals to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it. Most of the crowd
spread their coats on the road ahead of Jesus, and others cut branches from the
trees and spread them on the road. He was in the center of the procession, and
the crowds all around him were shouting, “Praise God* for the Son of
David! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise God in highest
heaven!” The
entire city of Jerusalem was stirred as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked. And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the
prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Notice
how the crowd loved Christ at this point in His life they give Him the welcome
of a great King. Yet in just a few short days they would turn
on Him and have Him crucified on a cross.
It was on the cross that Christ would bring honor to His Father. Let us take a second and think about what
this means, Christ could have taken this opportunity and soaked in the praise
and milked it for all that it was worth.
He could have said look at all these fans of mine I will have them
follow me and I will take over this empire. But this is not what He does why? Because He knew that people are fickle, that
one day they love you and the next they do not.
Ask anyone who holds a public office and they can tell you that as
well. You see we may find ourselves at
some point of saying if I do this people are really going to like me, but if I
don’t they won’t but God will be pleased with me. This is the point where you have to realize
that God being pleased with you is more important then what others think of
you. Because people will not always
follow you and praise you. But if we
follow God and we put our faith in him He will give us true life and true joy.
Remember,
“Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. You used to live
just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince
of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who
refuse to obey God. All of us used to
live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were
born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger just like everyone
else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even
while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ
from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!)
For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in
the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus. And so God can
always point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and
kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us through Christ Jesus. God
saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for
this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we
have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He
has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he
planned for us long ago.” Eph 2:1-10
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