When Jesus draws near things happen. When Jesus enters Jerusalem, hearts are exposed as the sun into a dark room. Palm Sunday means we are compelled to decide whether this donkey-riding messianic figure is who he claims to be.
When Jesus comes, our hearts are opened. What does he expose in us? Is it our sense of insecurity? “My Lord is coming! What if he sees me for who I really am?” Or perhaps when the Lord comes, we hide in fear like Adam and Eve believing that if we hide just long enough, perhaps our Lord will just keep riding his donkey to another town.
When Jesus comes, as He does this morning, we ought to feel exposed, but we ought not to feel shame. Shame is the exposure of our nakedness. Shame happens when we think that our exposure means our death; when we think that our ugliness has been revealed and there is no reason left to live. Ultimately, shame is rooted in our inherent preference to trust false gods rather than depend on God for each and every moment of our existence. What happens when we are exposed by Jesus’ coming? The answer is, “We lay down palm branches before him.” That is to say, we affirm that he controls everything; that does not come to us to crush our dreams, or to make us miserable, but he rules over us to make us strong in our weakness. In fact, shame happens when we think we are too strong. The message of Palm Sunday is to expose yourself to the king of love. He came to Jerusalem to die for your sin and shame. He came to Jerusalem so you may have life and life more abundantly.
[1] See Alender, Cry of the Soul, 195[2] Alender.
