March 4, 2009 - Luke 19

I can't tell you how many times I have read, or heard, the description of what we call Jesus' Triumphal Entry. I read Luke's version again this morning and saw something different. I guess I always thought that the disciples gathered there alongside the road praised Jesus because they had some small glimpse of who He was and what He had come to do. I knew that they most likely thought that He had come to assume an earthly kingdom, overthrowing Rome and putting Israel in power again, so I was surprised when I noticed something new to me in Luke 19:37. There Luke records the reason the crowds were praising Jesus. He writes, they "began to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen." I thought, that sure is shallow. They were praising Jesus because they saw some unique sights, some works of power they had never seen, some 'magic tricks' that mystified them. Jesus had spent time and energy teaching them the through the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, and many parables, and living almost three years with them, and they give him praise for the miracles. Then it hit me, that we are just like them. We often go for the 'show' and not the 'substance'.