Things Are Not Always As They Appear

Have you ever met someone and because of their first impression decided that this was a person you wanted to be associated with? Or worse yet, have you ever met a person and decided immediately that you didn’t want to associate with this person because of what you interpreted to be their true personality?

I have multiple times. I have met people over the years and immediately decided that we were going to be great friends. Truth be told, something happened in the course of our friendship that hurt the relationship often because I dove too deeply, too quickly without finding out everything about that person. I’ve also made the decision that I was not going to like someone when I first met them only to find out that I was totally wrong. I had prejudged them and I had not given them a chance. Honestly, out of the two scenarios, I am more sad about the latter; I hurt another person because I had not given them a chance.

As we begin Holy Week, I can’t help but wonder what was going on in the heads of the people in the crowd and in the heads of the disciples. Picture Jesus getting ready to go into Jerusalem. Was he full of excitement or full of apprehension? Picture the disciples following Jesus and hanging on His every word and action. And picture the large number of people who are in the city of Jerusalem. There must have been a sense of excitement and a sense of relief that their lives were about to change. Or so they thought. In their minds, the King that they have been hearing about for generations was finally here. This King was going to swoop in and save the day.
I can’t help but wonder what was going on in Jesus’ head as well. He knows that these people are expecting Him to take care of everything. He knows that in many ways, He will disappoint them because what Jesus knows as “taking care of everything” is not the same as what the crowd thinks. He knows that some of the very people that are celebrating His entry into Jerusalem will be the same ones that will turn their backs on Him in his deepest hour of need.

It saddens me when I think about those in my life that I have misjudged. I was willing to dismiss what was deep down because of what I thought I saw on the surface. Did those in the crowd feel the same way when they saw Jesus being tried, beaten and forced to endure great pain carrying his own cross? Did they question why Jesus didn’t just call down a legion of angels to do battle for him? Did they question if Jesus for the “real deal”? Were they willing to go with the crowd because of fear? Peter was. Remember he denied Christ three times.

I wonder if I would have been in that group as well. I wish that I could say that I would see beneath the surface but I’m not sure if I really would. I’ve misjudged before. As I begin this week that will prove to be a week of many emotions, I pray that I will take the time to see people and situations as they truly are; not as they appear to be.

Will you?