PALM SUNDAY – a straight path through the thicket of Human Maneuvering – John 12:1-19

Does life ever feel like a briar patch to you – like every where you turn you get poked and snagged, and everything is connected, and there seems like no way out ? Does life sometimes look like a thicket – a maze of thorns everywhere you turn? Today we look to Jesus to show us how to live in a life full of thickets. But more than that, we get a mental image that is truly helpful for understanding our relationship with Jesus as the one who makes a way straight through the thicket into the Kingdom of Gd. And we discover that to follow Jesus we must be like warriors and children – both at the same time!

“But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man…” – John 2:24-25

Jesus said “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. – Mark 10:15-16

When the days were approaching for His ascension, 
he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. – Luke 9:51

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” – Philippians 2:9-10

Jesus kept his eye on his mission in a world where there are really good reasons to get depressed and feel defeated. Life can feel like a thicket of thorns, where the harder we try to move forward, the more frustration and hurt we experience. All these forces can push us off course, cause us to meander in bitterness, taking our eyes off the way out which is also the way to joy. I am to follow Jesus wherever he takes me – I may encounter waving crowds or a cruel cross – but of these don’t define me. I will celebrate good things in ways that might seem extravagant to some, and I will discipline myself and walk dark roads when I have to, for I belong to my Savior who leads me through both.

Child + Warrior = TRUSTING, EARNEST, CURIOUS, PLAYFUL and resolutely setting my face like flint to do the hard things that need to be done to follow Jesus and live out the values of the Kingdom.