Crowds Chanting

Matthew 21:1-11, "A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted,'Hosanna to the Son of David!' 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' 'Hosanna in the highest!' When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this?'"

I worked on a ranch when I was younger. I loved getting up early, feeding and catching the horses. Then being on horse back just as the sun was coming up over the horizon. It just so happened that the ranch that I worked on worked cows and sheep. The cows were my favorite. They were work, but they were fun too. The sheep on the other hand, they were just annoying. One thing that I noticed about them was that when you are herding them, they will not walk up a hill. So you have to take them the long way around the hill before you can get up it. For the straight path is much too hard at first, so around the same hill you must go, gradually gaining altitude. Something else that I noticed was that when you caught them, they just laid there. Once they were caught, the fight was over. No wonder coyotes thought they were an easy meal. They didn't go straight up a hill, even to get away from danger. And once you caught them, they just laid there never fighting again. But something both cows and sheep had in common, they both followed each other without knowing where they were going or why. As far as they knew we were going to feed them. I will put it nicely, feeding them is not what we were doing...

Many times throughout the bible we are referred to as sheep. So often we are following wherever the next breeze blows us. Instead of learning our lesson the first time, we insist that we must take the long way around the same mountain, over and over again. We will follow any crowd, never knowing what is going to happen in the end, or caring why. This is what happened when Jesus entered the city. The crowds were rejoicing, but they didn't know why. They were worshiping Christ, just because their friends were. It was like going to a game without knowing what teams were playing. Who do you rout for? Depends on what side of the stadium you enter and who your friends are routing for. You will yell and cheer, but never really having any true heart for the outcome. This is why we must carefully choose our friends, because we are sheep and we will follow them, anywhere.

Oswald Chambers, "This sense of expectation will give our life the attitude of childlike wonder He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious. In other words, we must stop using religion as if it were some kind of a lofty lifestyle-we must be spiritually real." Are you a Christian? Do you know why? Are you just flowing along, following the crowd not really knowing who your shepherd is? Or, do you see Him? Sheep that follow their Shepherd because they know and see Him are much different than sheep who blindly follow the crowd. Who are you and what are you doing here?

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/03/29/devotion.aspx?year=2010