And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it. If any one says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it. And those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said; and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:1-10)

Amazing isn’t it? That on Palm Sunday/Passover the streets of Jerusalem were filled with people glorifying our Lord and Savior as He rode in on an “ass” as was predicted in the Old Testament (The Torah) many years before His birth. And then just five days later, those same people who were shouting “Hosanna in the highest” would be shouting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

On top of that, during their Passover Feast the night before His arrest, He would point to Judas as His betrayer, tell Peter he would deny Him three times and tell the rest of them that they would scatter like sheep the moment there was the first signs of danger! In fact the only ones who stayed by His side through it all were the women, Mary Magdalene, Mother Mary, Salome and others. Amazing isn’t it?

It’s amazing isn’t it, just how quickly those who were welcoming Him one day, turned against Him, even calling for His death, just five short days later? But are you really surprised? I’m not. Why is that? Well, it’s human nature especially when people find out that someone they supported turns out to not fit their own narratives. And Jesus didn’t fit anyone’s narrative except for the narrative of His Father in heaven.

For the people, Jesus didn’t fit their narrative, which was a Messiah that would come in battle to physically fight for them and to free them from the tyranny of Rome. When they realized that was not what His narrative was, they turned on Him like rabid dogs.

For the “religious” He NEVER fit their narrative. No matter what He taught, no matter how many miracles that they themselves witnessed, it didn’t fit their rigid narrative of the “religious” vs the people. They cared more about their positions in life and not eternal life. After all, in their eyes, He was a threat to their livelihoods, plain and simple. After all, if they kept in line with the Romans, life for them was good. But Jesus appeared to them to be a disrupter and they couldn’t have that. They couldn’t have the people following some rogue preacher that ate with sinners and healed the sick on the Sabbath! He out did them every time they turned around and how could such self-righteous men allow that? They couldn’t, so they had to do everything in their human power to make sure it stopped and if that meant bearing false witness against Him  and siding with Rome, so be it. Nothing like sleeping with the enemy.

Then, of course He sure didn’t fit the Roman narrative. Sure, to them He too was just a rogue preacher that most of the time they scoffed at and didn’t seem like much of a threat until the crowds grew and grew. Suddenly, this man from a nowhere place like Nazareth was becoming a threat to, you guessed it, their narrative and control they had over the people. So, it was pretty easy for the Pharisees to convince them that He had broken Jewish law and needed to be gotten rid of.

Fast forward to today and ask yourself have we changed much as a people, than during the time of Christ? Would Jesus be treated any different today than He was then? I would like to say that He would be treated differently, but if I’m honest with myself, the answer would have to be a resounding no.

You have to look no further than what’s happening right now in our own country. I’m not trying to get political here, and I’m not trying to compare Trump to Jesus, but just look at how this man is being treated because he absolutely refuses to get with “the program” or pay for it one way or another. Everything they say that he’s doing or is going to do, is exactly what they themselves are doing to all of us right now. Pretty similar to the Romans and the Pharisees. What about all of the people bearing false witness against him, just like Christ and all because he doesn’t fit their narrative. Later, all of the apostles and many of His followers  would be unfairly persecuted, most put in prison and/or put to death,  exactly what is going on right now in our own country. So, why would anyone in their right mind think that Jesus would be treated any differently? Because He wouldn’t be, and all because He refuses to fit their narrative!

Now is the time, not tomorrow, but now, that we do whatever we can to turn things around and the only way that we’re going to be able to do that is if we turn back to Jesus Christ. We’ve got to do a lot of praying, a lot of evangelizing, and a lot of standing up and speaking out against the tyranny, true He wants us to even love our enemies, but He doesn’t expect us to continue to tolerate the abuse. He knows that all people have something in common and one of those things are our “God given rights” and that’s where we must focus with those who may not agree with us on everything. But if we want to keep our freedoms, God wants for us to find that common ground and then join forces so that we can stop the abuse; the abuse of our senses, the abuse of our logic, the abuse of our individualism, the abuse of our creativity, the abuse of our children and so much more.

We also need to wake up our churches and their leaders because far too many are falling in step right now with the evil narratives coming at us at all directions. The only narrative that we must follow for the sake of all our souls, is God’s narrative!