I Give Up Double-Mindedness

Day 34 of Lenten Devotional Series

Matthew 21:6-11

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

I always love Palm Sunday's arrival, with its tradition of small children carrying palm branches through the sanctuary and its hope-filled assurance that Easter is near.

Yet I always feel a bit of dread with the arrival of Holy Week, and I shudder as I remember the events that must be commemorated before Easter Sunday dawns.

As a child, I listened to my Sunday School teacher tell about the people of Jerusalem waving palm branches upon Jesus' entry, while I colored a page of smiling faces whose king rode a donkey into the city. My mind had trouble connecting that story to the one that came soon after: the people who had joyfully welcomed Jesus cried out for His death.

Why? After such a triumphant welcome? After so much joy to see the Messiah humbly entering their city? Yet so many of them changed their minds just a few days later?  

Even Peter, who had promised Jesus he would never reject him, wavered when he was questioned after Jesus' arrest. Pontius Pilot, who believed Jesus was innocent, caved to the demands of the people.

We shake our heads in disbelief at how the crowd was so fickle, so easily swayed. While it's true that our lives look much more mundane than what was happening in Jerusalem at the time, in our own petty ways and little decisions, are we sometimes as two-sided today as those people were then? Easily changing our minds about someone who disappoints us, giving up on a situation when it becomes a bit challenging, not following through on our commitments? Giving in to what others think?

Our lives might not have those earth-shattering, pivotal moments that people faced in the last week of Jesus' life, but we have tiny opportunities everyday to be steadfast and resolute. In our relationships, families, work, and daily encounters with others, we get to choose if we will focus on what is most important or if we will let our thoughts be easily swayed and distracted.

James 1:6 Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

In this final week of Lent, let us give up double-mindedness and indecisiveness. Let us refocus our priorities and cling fiercely to truth so we won't be like the long-ago crowds who waved palm branches one day and shouted accusations the next.