One Walk

This weekend, three things happened that are somewhat unrelated, but spoke to me about unlikely heros, loyalty and sacrifice.

On Saturday night, I watched two movies - Defendor - (yes, with an "or") about a mentally challenged man, played by Woody Harrelson, who thinks he is a superhero and Hachiko - based on a true a story about a dog so attached to his master that he faithfully returns day after day for 9 years, to greet his master (even though the master has died). Talk about a tear jerker pretty much from the first scene! And then, I showed up at church today - Palm Sunday.

Our pastor preached the "Palm Sunday" message - the triumphal entry - heard it many times. But today, something was different. Maybe it was because I had watched these two movies the night before and I was already thinking about loyalty, and ordinary people doing extraordinary things because of love and being misunderstood for their actions...but today, I heard something new in the story.

One new message I heard today, was how much attitudes can change in a short period of time. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he was adored. People laid down palm branches (hence Palm Sunday) and their cloaks - he received the royal welcome, the welcome of Kings. In less than a week, he would be ridiculed, outcast and sent to die on a cross - by these very same people!

A dog faithfully waits 9 YEARS for it's owner to return... a pretty remarkable display of loyalty. People are fickle, their loyalties are not often steadfast, but situational. You can pretty much hear the people of Jerusalem switch their loyalty away from Jesus once they realized what he was or was not going to do for them (what do you mean you didn't come here to give us back our land and throw out those Romans? What kinda King are you anyways?).

The other message that struck me was about the love someone must have to willingly go into harms way in order to "defend" the helpless from the evil doers. In Defendor, we can't help but applaud Woody Harrelson's super hero efforts as he takes on the "bad guys", but at the same time, it's hard to watch as he steps into the line of fire, again, and again, and again - only to be beaten up and inevitably it doesn't end well for him. But he does it willingly, because he's trying to make a difference and he's willing to sacrifice. The sad part was that for most of the time, the people in his city had no idea of the sacrifices he was making to help defend them, until it was too late.

Jesus came to make a difference and willingly make the ultimate sacrifice. A Defendor of us all. And on the first Palm Sunday, as the fanfare of his triumphal entry took place, they had no idea of the sacrifice that was to come just a few days later.