Faithful or fickle followers?

T

his column first appeared in The Citizen in March 2012:

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, celebrating Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The Passover celebration is beginning. He has come from Bethany, where he raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus descends the Mount of Olives, riding a donkey. The temple glistens across the valley. The crowd sees Jesus as the Messiah and begins to sing and shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

They wave palm branches, lay their cloaks in his path, and hail Jesus as king. Yet less than a week later, many in the same crowd are calling for Jesus’s blood, “Crucify him!” They want Barabbas, a rebel and murderer rather than Jesus. They loudly proclaim, “We have no king but Caesar!”

How could the people turn on Jesus so quickly? As I read this story I see four kinds of follower in the crowd.

The Disillusioned Follower

Judas was the most ambitious of the disciples. He wanted a Messiah who would kick out the Romans and set up his own kingdom. He was treasurer and was angling for Minister of Finance in the new kingdom. Jesus had missed one chance when he fed the multitude in Galilee. The people wanted then to make him king, but Jesus only claimed to be “the bread of life,” who could meet their inner needs. By the end of the day, he had lost the crowd. Judas was disillusioned, and now he was plotting how to betray Jesus. At least he would get something out of it.

The Silent Follower

Jewish leaders were in that crowd. I imagine Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night, to whom Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Those words had a great impact. Nicodemus had tried to speak up for Jesus in the Jewish council, but was rebuffed. He wasn’t ready yet to give up his position of authority to follow Jesus, so he remained silent, but after Jesus’s death he followed Jesus openly.

The Temperamental Follower

Peter, the most prominent of Jesus’ followers declared his loyalty loudly. He boasted he would follow Jesus to death, even if everyone else forsook him and fled. But when the test came his courage failed; he bowed to peer pressure and denied that he knew Jesus. In spite of Peter’s failure, Jesus tenderly restored him after the resurrection.

The Faithful Follower

After Jesus’s arrest, even the most loyal followed at a distance. John tried to stay as close to his master as possible. He followed him into the high priest’s palace, and later was at the side of Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the cross. Jesus entrusted to John the care of his mother. John stayed faithfully at his master’s side to the end.

Are we faithful or fickle followers? We may feel unworthy as Jesus’s followers. But this Easter reflect on His love for us. He loved us enough to die in our place; He rose again to give us eternal life, purpose and hope, and he says, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”