Comfort Trap

Matthew 21:15 KJV

And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,

The word wonderful is used slightly different in our day than is was here. We think of wonderful as being extraordinarily good. In this case the word refers to the wonders or miracles that Jesus did. The chief priests could call them wonders, using the term to refer to His miraculous deeds, but they did not view them as good. 

But we live in this present generation and we think of the term, wonderful, differently. Without detracting from the original meaning, and the teaching it brings to us, I can see value in reading this word with our present understanding. After all, the God who declares the end from the beginning knew how we would come to think of the term. 

Now consider this then; Jesus did many extraordinarily good things. Even owing to the difference in word usage, we cannot look at His ministry that day and not see it was extraordinarily good. It was so good that the children were crying out and praising God because of it. It was extraordinarily good. But the chief priests and scribes ignored the goodness of these deeds to focus only on the impact they would have on their own religion.

It is too easy for us to get into that same trap.

• We have made plans. 
• We have established patterns. 
• We have assumed positions we are comfortable with

And Jesus, even if He does extraordinarily good things, sometimes threatens to demolish what we have come to depend upon. 

We must learn to depend upon the Lord and not those things we are familiar and comfortable with. Let us go forth, without the comfort of the camp, to follow Christ.