“Divided Loyalties”
Mark 11:1–11

We are sports fans and each of us has lived in cities where various home teams have been serial winners like the Miami Heat appearing in four consecutive NBA championships and the Kansas City Chiefs enjoying three Super Bowl wins in four appearances. Cheering for the winning team is really fun.

However, we both tend to be underdog fans as well. When our teams first started winning, they had not won for years prior. Yet, shortly after that first win, they became the dreaded Goliath. It is hard to recognize when your loyalties become divided. Do I root for the home team (in their success) or do I root for the underdog?

Palm Sunday presents us with crowds of people with divided loyalties. The crowds were carrying palm branches, standing in a parade, yet considering many things as they waved those palms. They were considering the law, the leaders, the implications of continuing to follow Jesus.

We may wonder how anyone could have turned on Jesus so quickly. Waving palm branches one day and denying or abandoning him the next. But have we done the same? It is not hard to cheer for the home team one year and soon after shift loyalties.

We, too, often discard our faith when it doesn’t suit other commitments and priorities in our lives or when it isn’t convenient. We change directions when others don’t agree with us and conflict emerges. We take our jerseys off, tuck our Bibles away or simply make other plans.

We realize today that our crowd is not a distant group of people we cannot relate to.  The crowd is us.

The meaning of “Hosanna” is “Blessed one! Save us!” The psalmist cries out in Psalm 118 and the crowds shout it in the gospel accounts. “Save us!” 

In all of our cheers, team pride and excitement perhaps we are the ones who need to chant more often “Lord, Save us!”

Reflection: Might our prayer this Lent be for our loyalties to remain undivided as we follow the Christ into Jerusalem, toward the cross, into the tomb and beyond.