Of A Double Mind

Preached at St. Luke’s: 04/02/23

The Apostle Paul rightly encourages us to be of a single mind – the same mind that
was in Christ Jesus. And yet, the truth remains that we are of a double mind, and if
you don’t believe me, just look at our liturgy this morning. So, which is it: Palm
Sunday or Passion Sunday? Are we acknowledging our Lord’s Triumphal Entry into
the Holy city of Jerusalem, or remembering the shameful execution of a common
criminal, carried out just outside the city limits, so as not to defile the sacred place
where God Himself resides? Are we those who sing with shouts of joy; “Hosanna to
the son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in
the highest heaven!”? Or are we those baying for blood, with cries of; “Let Him be
crucified!”? The answer should be both obvious, and incredibly humbling, since that
answer must be, “Yes!” We are all of those, and more. Because we are of, at least, a
double mind.
Now, the words of the Prophet Isaiah have often been dubbed the 5th Gospel, due to
the simple fact that much of the prophecy delivered in them has long been associated
with the person of Jesus Christ – a pattern established not by the Church per se, but by
none other than the Messiah Himself. And the prophetic tone of Isaiah which most
clearly sings the praises of Jesus, can be found in those portions of the Prophet’s
writings commonly called the “Songs of the Suffering Servant”, of which our reading
today is one; “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who
pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The
Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face
like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let
them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?”
So back to my original point- the Suffering Servant begs; “Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.” Which are
two very distinct, but also related questions, because “Who will contend with me?”
doesn’t mean “who will contend against me?” but means instead, simply what it asks;
“Who will contend with me?” In other words, let whomever is ready, willing, and
able to struggle and suffer alongside me, take a stand with me – “Who will contend
with me? Let us stand up together.” And then, let those who stand against me come
forward now – “Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.” Simple enough,
right? Pick your side and take your place. Are you with me, or against me? Except,
once again, in our case, the answer is clearly “Yes.” Because we are of a double mind.
In as much as, in our hearts we do truly desire to stand with our Lord in His suffering,
and to contend alongside Him, against all that is evil. The only problem is, we
perhaps do not desire Him and His suffering ways so much as we desire our own –
ways and desires which necessarily set ourselves in direct confrontation with Him
who is our one salvation and redemption. So, the answer to who will stand with Him,
and who will stand against Him, is actually one in the same – that would be, yours
truly. Hence Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday. The one day we acknowledge that we are,
in truth, doubleminded; because we are, in fact, little more than walking, talking
contradictions – essentially: living, breathing lies; not to put too fine a point on it.
And yet, for those of us constantly forced to answer “yes” to a seemingly endless
stream of mutually exclusive realities, there remains one true answer: He who is the
way, the truth and life itself. He who has simultaneously set His face like flint toward

the shameful execution which He must now bear on account of our sins – unwilling to
even turn that face from the spitting and insults you and I have purchased for Him;
while no-less making that same face to shine upon us, that we might know beyond the
shadow of any doubt, that it is in His loving-kindness – alone – that we are saved. For
it is by His single-minded desire for our salvation, that His shameful Crucifixion is
made to be our own triumphal entry into the eternal truth of His life. And it is the
Lord God who helps even those who have declared Him guilty. Blessed are we, only
because He has come and gone, and been raised, all in the Name of Lord – and in the
name of our salvation. Since His coming was for no one, if not for that very crowd
whose shouts of joy fell to fearful whispers, before growing again, once and for all, to
those shameful cries of crucifixion, in the foolish hope of taking the life of the One
who is life itself. It is for them – which is to say, for us – that He came. Therefore, it is
by His grace and His grace alone, as we enter this holiest of weeks, that you and I may
now actually begin to; “Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus, who,
though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to
be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human
likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient
to the point of death– even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue,
[especially yours and mine], should now confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.” Amen.