For the Twelve, the Palm Sunday event was a pleasant memory. For the rest of their lives, they would relish this happy moment from their past, seeing it as a foretaste of their happiest time yet to come in their future.
For the other onlookers in Jerusalem, this event would be a disappointing memory. They would remember it as the day they thought their conquering warlord had come, but they were wrong.
One reason they were so fickle is, they had no grasp of what they had shouted about. They wanted it to be all about them. The Jerusalem crowd was much more concerned about what Jesus could do for them than for what they could do for Jesus. Despite their hoopla for Him, it was in the end about them, not Him.
Too many are most concerned about what they can muscle or leverage from God. Listening to a cassette in my car, I once heard Peter Lord ask a group of preachers, what is the number one goal of your life? I said to myself, "To build a great church". No sooner had I thought it till he said, if your chief goal is to build a great church, you are a religious idolater. I was so taken aback that I almost swerved my car into a ditch. Peter Lord taught us God is never to be the means to an end. Everything starts with Him, flows from Him, and ends in Him. Rare are the ones who serve Jesus for His sake, who seek His face rather than His hands.
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