Just thinking; Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11)

Sometimes I wonder about my reaction if I had lived and witnessed the ministry of Jesus on earth.  To be honest, I do get scared sometimes.  I am not sure I would have reacted positively and accepting.  It is very complex to put aside preconceptions and prejudices to then exercise faith "like a little child" (Mark 10:15).

The Gospel writers tell us about Jesus' "Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem".  The prophecy had said: "I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory... The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house" (Haggai 2:7,9).  There is no secret that the temple that Solomon built was magnificent, and the promise to those weeping at the scene full of rubble after coming back from Babylon was that the future of the temple was brighter that its past.

Two thousand years later it's easy to "get it", though the temple was not as beautiful physically as the one built by Solomon, the fact that Jesus, "the desired of all nations", walked, preached forgave, healed, and triumphantly entered, fulfills the promise of a greater glory.  But, what if I lived then, would I have "gotten it"?

It bothers me, to be honest, because we usually romanticize the past and play a touching song in our memory while imagining those scenes.  But what if I had lived then, in the raw of the moment, would I have "gotten it"?  It makes me think.