He Is Steadfast

Mark 11:9-10

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You’ll never meet anybody more fickle than a sports fan. I spent some time serving in Nebraska, and during that time I became a Nebraska fan. It’s hard to cheer for Nebraska. Their football program has been rough for the past few years. And it’s funny, I’ll look forward to the game. I’ll set aside time so I can watch the game on television. The week leading up to it you won’t catch me in anything besides a Husker t-shirt or maybe a Husker sweatshirt. Every morning I drink out of my Husker cup.

But then, after yet another loss to yet another team that we should have beat. Suddenly those Husker t-shirts stay in the drawer a little bit longer. Those Husker sweatshirts are folded up and in the closet. That mug begins to gather dust as opposed to coffee. It’s fickle thing to follow a sports team. One moment you’re on cloud nine and you’re supporting you’re shouting, you’re cheering, but then the next moment you change.

We see that in the story of Palm Sunday, right?

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mark 11:9-10)

We see Jesus entering into Jerusalem. And the crowd, they’re excited. They’re welcoming. They are shouting praises and adoration, shouting Hosanna! They’re laying down their coats for Jesus. They’re laying down palm branches as a way to honor him as a king entering a city. But something changes and it changes quickly. In that same city during that same week there going to be different shouts, not shouts of praise and adoration, but shouts of anger, shouts of dishonesty, shouts of crucify him!

In our faith we too can be fickle, right? There are times in which we are on fire for God. We are shouting praises to God. Think of an Easter Sunday morning. Think of a Christmas Eve service. We’re so quick to invite our friends. We’re excited to be there. We’re shouting those songs and it’s a beautiful thing. But quickly it can change even just the next week, a few weeks later. Suddenly, those shouts of joy, that eagerness to attend worship, the invitations that we offer to our friends, suddenly those kind of disappear. Kind of a fair weather fan sometimes.

But while we are fickle in our faith. Christ is steadfast. That’s the beauty of Palm Sunday, isn’t it? Christ knows what’s coming. Christ knows why he’s entering Jerusalem. Christ knows how this week is going to end. But he is steadfast, he continues. He knows that those who are shouting praises will later be shouting words of hatred. He knows that times in which we’ll be on fire for our faith, and times in which we hide our faith, but still he is steadfast. He rides in on that donkey. He gives us the Lord’s Supper and he dies on the cross. He lays down his life. He doesn’t trip up. He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t give up. He is steadfast and he dies on that cross. So that all those times in which we are not steadfast, they’re forgiven. We are still loved. We are still his children. We rejoice in the fact that we have a God who is not like us. A God who is steadfast and loving in all that he does. Amen.