Yesterday,
churches in the West celebrated Palm Sunday, while Eastern churches are
preparing to celebrate this coming Sunday. Regardless of which day it is
celebrated, the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is striking for its
stark contrast with the succeeding events. It has always been astounding to me
how the same people who adoringly declared, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” could just a few days later
venomously demand, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” (John 12:13;
19:15, ESV)
We know most
of the Jewish religious leaders were never enamored with Jesus, so their desire
for His death is no surprise as we read the biblical account. But the crowds
that had followed Jesus are another matter. They had appeared to have faith in
Him, to at the very least be pleased with His actions and amazed by the
miracles He performed, recognizing that He had an uncommon authority. The
miracles drew people in, and as John tells us, the crowds in Jerusalem laying
palm branches beneath Jesus’ feet were gathering to praise Him because they had
heard how He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 12:17-18).
Such a
great act was sure to inspire excitement and awe, and it is no wonder that the
people called out blessings on Jesus as He passed by. What is a wonder, though,
is how their seemingly convinced declarations of Jesus as King, the Son of
David, and the one who comes in the name of Lord (Matthew 21:9, Luke 19:38,
John 12:13) could so quickly die out, not fizzling into silence but morphing
into an ugly roar of just the opposite. How could people move from adoration to
betrayal so quickly?
When we
look in the Old Testament, we see this behavior was not so new after all. Take
Aaron, for instance. Appointed by God as Moses’ mouthpiece and right-hand-man
in leading the entire Israelite people out of Egypt, he witnessed the miracles
of the plagues and the Red Sea’s parting and stood before the people alongside
Moses as a fellow representative of God Himself. And yet what did he do? He
built a literal idol and told the people to worship it when they got impatient
for Moses’ return from his meeting with God on the mountain (Exodus 32). What
in the world.
And Gideon,
the unassuming man chosen by God to deliver the Israelites from their Midianite
oppressors, in the same breath as deferring to God’s leadership rather than
taking power for himself, asked the people to give him gold earrings so he
could make an ephod that the people then worshiped (Judges 8:22-27). Again—what
in the world? Did we learn nothing from Aaron?
With these
two examples of faith that strayed, we see the fickleness of the human heart.
And it is this fickleness that we see on display again in the New Testament
with the crowds that followed Jesus, crowds who had rejoiced at His coming yet
were so easily swayed by the chief priests to demand His execution (see Mark
15:11-15). But it was not only the random crowds that displayed such fickleness.
Even Peter,
one of Jesus’ closest followers, who had so confidently asserted that he would
go so far as to die with Jesus, denied Him three times mere hours after making
such a promise. Yet even in the face of Peter’s fear and fickle faith, Jesus
was gracious to Him, giving him assurance even before he strayed into sin that
he would be restored and that he had an important purpose in the Kingdom of God
(Luke 22:31-34, 54-62). He would go on to be one of the strongest leaders in
the early Church and to contribute to the very Word of God through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Similarly, Aaron,
rather than being cast off by God for his betrayal, was forgiven and installed
as the first High Priest, the only one permitted to enter the Holy of Holies
and stand in the manifest presence of God. And Gideon, despite encouraging
communal idolatry even as Aaron had, went on to be listed among the heroes of
the faith in Hebrews 11. For Peter, Aaron, Gideon, and so many others in the
Bible, their straying was not the end of their story.
We don’t
know the identities of all the members of the crowd who went from praising to
condemning Jesus, but it is not unreasonable to believe that some of them later
became convicted of the truth by the Holy Spirit and repented, exchanging their
fickle faith for a true and abiding one that praised Jesus for who He is and
not just what He does. Although we don’t know the individual testimonies of most
of the hundreds of believers in the early Church, it’s not a stretch of the
imagination to think that some of them were among those who began to follow
Jesus for shallow reasons, only wanting the physical things He could give them,
and then turned their backs on Him at the Cross. Their wavering was not the end
of their story.
We often
look at cases like Saul/Paul and marvel at the grace of God in taking someone who
had always been an avowed enemy of Jesus and turning him into a devoted
follower, but it’s easy to forget that the grace of God is just as remarkable
in taking someone with merely situational, conditional faith and giving them
the anchored faith that saves or taking someone from shallow, wavering belief
into the depths of solid faith. God’s mercy and grace are bigger than any
fickleness we can display.
So as we
reflect on Palm Sunday and the short-lived praise of the Jerusalem crowds, may
we examine our own hearts, putting our faith under a microscope and realizing
that we are no better than they. Recognizing the weakness of our flesh and our
proneness to wander, may we earnestly pray with the man in Mark 9:24, “‘I
believe; help my unbelief!’” And when we find our faith faltering or we stumble
into sin, may we find encouragement in the marvelous grace of God that does not
cast us away for our fickleness but rather draws us near, restores us, and
strengthens us by His Spirit for His glory and our good.
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