When He doesn't do it our way

And they all cried out at once, saying, “Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas”— who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder.
Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them. But they shouted, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”
Then he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go.”
But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. – Luke 23.18-24

Less than a week before his event the whole city had turned out to welcome Jesus into the city. With songs and praise and their cloaks laid out before Him and palm leaves waving the people hailed their King. Their Saviour and Messiah and Deliverer and Redeemer had come. The Roman occupation of their land was coming to an end. The Jewish puppets of the Roman were about to lose their power. Messiah had come to vanquish the foes and God’s kingdom on earth, the Jewish kingdom in their minds, was about to take over.

Why would they not rejoice?

But something went wrong. Here it was just a few days later and their Messiah had failed them. He was under arrest for treason against Rome and her authorities. After a mock trial with false witnesses the time for sentences had come. There was a custom that the people would be given a choice of two prisoners to have released. Here the choice was Jesus, who we know, and Barrabas and known violent criminal. Surely the people would choose Jesus and the officials would be off the hook.

But no. They cried out ‘give us Barrabas!’ Despite the objections the people kept insisting that they get Barrabas. They had forgotten all about the King who had let them down.

Terrible, right?

Let’s ask ourselves a question though. How do we act when Jesus doesn’t do what we want? What do we do when He ‘doesn’t keep His end of the bargain?’ What about He doesn’t answer prayer the way we want Him to. It is easy to worship when He does what we want. Otherwise we can be just like the people in Jerusalem. We can go from ‘praise Him’ to ‘forget about Him’ when we can’t see things through His eyes.

Let’s be careful about letting circumstances dictate how we feel about Jesus.