Daily Lent Devotions from Church Street UMC
Sunday, March 28, Morning
By Mrs. Katherine R. Luton, March 30, 1977
The Crowd
Read Matthew 16:24
“Then said Jesus unto His disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me.”
Always He feared you;
For you knew Him only as the man of loaves and fishes,
The man who did marvelous things. He who raised Lazarus,
Healed the lame, and made the blind to see,
Fleeing from you, He sought the solace of the garden.
He must have known that you would cry, “Release unto us Barabbas!”
And fling your cruel words at Him as He climbed to the Golgotha alone.
Perhaps He knew that some day you would build creeds about Him,
And lose Him in massive structures of stone,
With costly windows, dignified ritual, and eloquent preachers;
While outside He waited …
Sad … and alone.
-Irene McKeighan
May we ask ourselves during this Lenten Season, “Are we a part of the crowd?” We have read and believed the stories about Jesus recorded in our Bibles. Had we been present at the time of the trial would we have voted against the crowd? How easy it is to accept the creeds about Him when there is no sacrifice! How easy it is to pride ourselves for being members of a beautiful church! How we enjoy stimulating sermons and beautiful music! All the time our Christ is waiting outside sad and alone because we have never truly followed his commandment —“deny thyself and take up thy cross and follow Me.”
Prayer
Our Heavenly Father, give us the strength in this day not to be content with things as we find them, but inspire us to be true followers of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. This is the only way that His way may be known on this earth. Amen.
