Celebration and Repentance

Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.”

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When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

- Exodus 15:21 and Luke 19:37-38

In Exodus, Miriam is jubilant, stirring up the Israelite crowd as they celebrate God's deliverance from Egypt. In Luke, the crowd joyfully praises God as Jesus enters into Jerusalem.

What they're doing is good. Celebration. Joyful praise. These were true and authentic responses to God's presence and provision.

What they are doing is good. But they're also fickle.

Miriam would turn on Moses. Jealous of her brother, she would speak bitterly against him behind his back. And that crowd in the Luke story on what we now call "Palm Sunday" ... they would turn too. Just a few days later, a crowd would cry out "Crucify him!"

Which one is the real them? Was Miriam the worship leader or the backstabber? Is the crowd with Jesus or against him?

Our temptation is to slide all to one side. Some of us want to believe only the best about ourselves. We ignore our sin. Others of us want to wallow in our failings. Our bright spots serve only to highlight the depth of our transgressions.

But over and over again throughout the Scriptures, we are pushed to both celebrate our bright spots AND to deal honestly with our sins and the ways we've walked away from the Lord, turned against him and prioritized other things.

Later in Miriam's story, she is both disciplined and brought back into the fold. And the same is true of the crowd in Luke. Some of the same people who cried out "Crucify him!" would have heard the Spirit descend on the church in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

There is a comfort that comes from God's willingness to continually invite us in to celebrate and to repent. And, friends, good news ... celebration gets the last word.

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