Proclaiming or Shouting?

With my eyes still tuned towards the religious significance of this holy week, I haven't been able to help myself from consistently thinking about the last week of Jesus life. Starting on Sunday with the triumphal entry and concluding with his resurrection.

Today specifically I was thinking about the crowds actions towards Jesus, which begin with him entering Jerusalem and people Proclaiming "Hosannas" as he rides through, and then ends with crowds shouting "crucify Him" as he is on trial in front of Pilate.

There are scholars who both do and don't think that these crowds could have been made of the same people. I have not done that research, nor do i find it important for my point.

My point is this, our lives, my life is often choosing one of these two actions, either proclaiming Hosanna, or shouting crucify Him.

What about you?

Do you chose not to live the life you know Christ wants from you? Do you decide that the way this world works is better than the way God wants this world to look? Are you more comfortable following society, politics, Hollywood, your boss, even your church than you are in following God? Who have you made king in your life?

Jesus asks us to live a life that loves God and loves our neighbors (even our enemies). Have you decided instead that you will ignore God and your neighbors to further yourself? That your love only need extend to your family, or your friends? That God's reign in your life need be something only between you and him? Is your life shouting "crucify him" i've got a way to live that is better than having him as a king. He claims kingship over my life, but i'd rather live with him dead.

Or....

Is your life one that gladly acknowledges who Christ is? That he is King. That he is Lord. That he is God. He is worthy of every thought, deed, and action that he has requested. My enemies are worthy of every thought, and action that he has commanded.

It is often easy for me to look at society, the healthier parts of it and acknowledge what my wife is worthy of from me (sacrifice and love even past the point of death to myself). Unfortunately, even the "healthy" (read morally mature) part of society does not satisfy in instructing a life that is anywhere close to what Christ commanded, and exemplified. It requires so much more than going with the flow. It requires a lot more than just being part of the crowd. It requires me using my unique voice to shout out that Christ is King, and to believe it a week later, when faced with a crowd that disagrees. It requires that my life be lined up with his teachings, that my actions point to the fact that his reign and kingship is more important to me than my own comfort. It requires my sacrifice and love even past the point of death to myself.