Disconcerting versatility (1)

"The next day, a great crowd ... went out to meet him and began shouting : Hosanna ! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. "John 12: 12-13

"[Pilate] said to the Jews : Behold your king ! But they cried : To death, to death ! Crucify him ! ... Then he delivered them to them to be crucified. "John 19: 14-16

On the Sunday before Passover, the Lord returns to Bethany. Immediately, as far as Jerusalem, the rumor of his return spread among the pilgrims who had come up for the feast. They want to see Jesus and Lazarus ; They gathered in crowds at Bethany, where, on the following day, they acclaim the Lord and brandish palms on his way. The exaltation will reach its height when, mounted on a colt, Jesus begins his last stage towards Jerusalem. Would not the conqueror of death, the author of the resurrection of Lazarus, be the expected Messiah ? Does it not happen precisely at the Passover, recalling the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, to free the Jews from the Roman yoke ?

Spontaneously an acclamation sprang from the crowd : "Hosanna ! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. "

Alas ! Three days later, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, arrested by the guard and handed over to the high priest. From Anne to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from Herod still to Pilate, booed, slapped, whipped, insulted ... he can not be the one who will liberate the Jews from the Romans, He can not be the Messiah, the King of Israel. Deeply disconcerted by the humiliation of the Lord and excited by the hateful arrogance of the priests, the Jews let their disappointment degenerate into hatred : "To death, to crucify him ... We have no king but Caesar" .

How to understand similar versatility ?

Rejecting salvation by grace, the Jews acclaim the Lord as King only in so far as he satisfies their obsession: to be freed from the Roman yoke. When they discover that Jesus will not assume this liberation, their rejection is implacable.

Nothing has changed since then. The world accepts a tolerant Christ whose very blessing is implanted on manners which God nevertheless condemns, but which one rejects at the slightest call to repentance. Let us be directed to proclaim that if the Lord has given his life to save us, it is also for us to "redeem our vain conduct" by the gift of his blood (1 Pet. 1:18, 19).

Source (To pleasing the Lord)