Mark 15:15 NLT

'So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.'

The fickleness of the crowd who once hailed Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem is evident to us all. I am reminded of my own fickleness. I have been among that crowd when it’s suited me to keep quiet about my love and friendship with God. It is remarkable how a culture that offers little by way of hope, and has reduced the purpose of life to accumulating wealth and consumer products, can silence a message offering hope to human existence. Individuals are prepared to convince me of the merits of one motorised metal box over another with a zeal that I can barely muster in speaking of God, even to Christians.

When I pursue God, I experience the very real pain of choosing God’s way over my natural inclination. I am also made aware by God’s Spirit of the gap that so easily exists between my vocal declarations and my practical life and time style. This is perhaps where those Church traditions that allow for third party confession to a priest have identified something valuable. When I make confession to God in private, as I do, I am not ever exposing my daily hypocrisy, but entering a loop of self-distortion at best, deception at worst.

I’ve learned that there is no way to follow Jesus without pain to my pretentious (however well-intentioned) self; I’m reminded that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. I, unlike Jesus, might deserve scourging; he, however, embraced it on my behalf so I might know that life in Christ is not without its slings and arrows.

QUESTION: What distracts you most from pursuing a deeper relationship with God?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you neither feared nor followed the crowd. Help me to pay attention most of all to your voice.