“When The Cheering Stopped”

Gene A. Smith, an American historian, authored a book entitled, “When The Cheering Stopped.” The book told of Woodrow Wilson, and the events surrounding WW1.

On his first visit to Paris after the war, Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes.

The same thing was true in England and Italy. In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn’t believe her.

They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be alright.

The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace.

At home, Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President’s health began to break.

In the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man.

It’s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. History is filled with such examples.

One of the quickest changes happened to Jesus. On Sunday the crowd was waving palm branches and shouting, "Hosanna" and by Friday they were crying out "Crucify Him!"

This weekend at GT Church we will look we will look at "Why the Cheering Stopped for Jesus." The Committed, the Curious and the Cursing all let him down. There is a lot we can learn from their mistakes.