Who knows if it is or it isn’t?
John 12: 12-13. 12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
‘Hosanna!’
‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’
‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’
Ever find yourself in a once in a lifetime event? More often than not we don’t realize it at the time, I mean who knows what will happen in the future? As awesome as something is we can’t be sure that it won’t come back around again, right? I wonder if the people who crowded around Jesus five days before Passover so many years ago realized what they were witnessing. Perhaps.
Many of them shouted, ‘Hosanna’ which was commonly expressed at celebrations including Passover which they had gathered there for. However in this instance they were shouting it not so much as a hopeful plea for deliverance or salvation as a triumphant assertion that this was their messiah in front of them. There were naysayers in the crowd also to be sure. The Pharisees, threatened by the following Jesus had developed, were particularly vexed but even some of the common people didn’t believe despite all the miracles He had performed. They, in particular, missed that this was a unique, never-to-be-repeated event. Like their cries of ‘Hosanna’ which appear in only the account of this spectacle in the Bible, our lives, Jesus’ life, won’t happen again.
We have only one shot at this life. The rest is eternity in whatever form that takes. Whether we are experiencing a once in a lifetime or a last in a lifetime event, something as awesome as Jesus entry into Jerusalem or as mundane as our morning coffee, recognizing the uncertainty of things should make us appreciative. Our limited, tenuous spot here on this old rock should logically motivate us to maximize whatever we do and whatever we believe in because it very well could be our last, our one and only, shot.
Not to be a fear-monger but we really should have a healthy appreciation for what’s going on now. We don’t know when it may end nor how important what we’re doing may actually turn out to be.
If you would like to read more, click here to go to my blog’s home page and if you would like to subscribe, click this. I write about life and our place here and subscribing is free and only means you’ll get an email on Sunday with links to my week’s posts. Nothing more, nothing less.