Lent Week 6

April 14 (Palm Sunday)
I Give Up: “Hiding My Faith” – John 12:12
~Brent Vicars

As we reflect on Jesus coming into Jerusalem, his “Triumphal Entry”, there are two things we know for sure - people were praising His name and that in a few days He would have to pay for our sins with His own life. There was no hiding who He was.

Jesus had a way of using every situation to make His love for people and for the Father known.  In Mark 12:30-31 Jesus said to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second (greatest commandment) is this: ‘Love y our neighbor as yourself.’” Jesus emulated this in His encounters with people – so much so that He would spend time with the dregs of society.  The very least of these He would treat with love and respect.  The woman at the well, someone who was ashamed of who she was, is an example of this love.  Jesus saw her as who she could be and treated her as such.  He taught others to do the same, using the example of the Samaritan – a person despised by the Jews during Biblical times – for doing the right thing.  Jesus allowed His faith and the love of His father to shine through on to all who met him.

Jesus was never shy about His faith nor did He hold back His love for other people. This should be the model for us in our own faith. When Jesus rode into town he did not do it in a quiet manner, hiding who He was. He rode in on a colt, a humble King coming to His people. He wanted them to see who He really was, a man of the people who was there to show them the love and forgiveness from the Father.
 
For modern Christians we may feel the need in some situations to hide our faith. But the model of Jesus says that we should be proud of who we are in Christ. We are to represent ourselves humbly with honor and love for those around us. We need to ‘give up’ trying to hide our faith and be proud of the people God has called us to be and the identity we have as children of God.
 
Questions to Consider:

1. When you meet with new people, what do you tell them of your faith? Is it something that you bring up or something that you are afraid to speak about?
2. If you were to describe yourself to someone new, where does your faith play into the description?
3. Jesus told us to love God and to love people. This includes all people, even the one who we don’t look like, act like or agree with. In thinking of your interactions with others, is this command evident in your life? In the way you treat and talk to others?
4. In what ways can we better display our faith so that the world can know the name of Jesus?

 
Additional Readings:
Psalm 56:11  
Matthew 10:32-33
Luke 11:33 
Matthew 27:22-25