1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. 7For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; 10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. 11For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass; and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.
12Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. 15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death. 16Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow. 18Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; 20for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. 21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; 24for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
A Fickle Faith
When we read this account, we might wonder who these horrible people were who were screaming, “Crucify Him”! The passage tells us that the chief priests and elders persuaded the “multitudes” to ask for the release of a criminal, a murderer. And in Jesus' place, they shouted for the release of Barabbas. Only one could be chosen for release, and they chose Barabbas. It is easy for us to either overlook a passage like this or to minimize its significance. Just who were
The Crowd Choosing Barabbas
these terrible people?
Matthew’s account of the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday is back in chapter twenty-one. It is easy to forget about that when we’re reading Matthew chapter twenty-seven. But logically thinking, this had to be the same group of people who were shouting praises. Let’s look again at what they were doing in chapter twenty-one. **“8 A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”10 When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”11 The multitudes said, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”**What in the world had changed in just four days?
The multitude had their idea of the kind of Messiah that Jesus was, and they got mad when He didn’t do it their way. They wanted Him to be the deliverer from the bondage of Rome. They would settle for nothing less. When He didn’t turn out to be what they had imagined Him to be, they turned on Him. They screamed, “Crucify Him”. Just days before, they had screamed, “Save us now, O Son of David”. They were fickle in their faith. Reader, don’t be part of the multitude. Don’t try to outthink God. When He doesn’t do what you think He should do, do not turn on Him. When God doesn’t answer our prayers the way that we want Him to, we might be tempted to turn on God. Some walk away from the faith entirely. Don’t base your faith on who you think Jesus ought to be and what you think that He ought to do. That is a fickle faith. There is a reward for those who keep the faith. James, the brother of Jesus, tells us clearly what happens to the fickle. “7 For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:7 WEB)